Twenty Questions
by Idream3223
Summary: Season 4 Episode 2ish- What if Sookie had actually listened to what Eric was saying to her when he said he wanted 'everything'. This is more than a one shot.
1. Change

_Stay away from me._

_This is no way to treat your new landlord._

_I am not yours, and I want you out of my house now!_

_Funny about ownership, isn't it?_

_A little piece of paper, and the only power you had over me is gone._

_What do you want from me?_

_Everything._

Sookie stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked Eric in the eye. Seeing him for the first time since he had appeared in her room. _What the what? Everything?_

"Eric, what do you mean, 'everything'?" He moved toward her, slowly insinuating himself closer to her body. If he had been warm, she would have felt his warmth at this distance. _Which, means_, she _thought, he can feel mine._ She repressed a shiver.

"I am asking you to be mine," his voice deep, his gaze deeper and the rumble in his chest that accompanied those words made her vibrate on the inside as well. It was foolish to trust him. It was inevitable to trust him. She sighed, moving the rest of the way into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table and looking at him expectantly to join her there.

"Eric," she began, looking him directly in the eye, ignoring the smirk on his lips and seeking to dig past it, to dig to the heart of him with her eyes and her words, because she not only wanted truth, she wanted to give it in return. "Ever since I met Bill, things in my life have moved so fast! I don't think, I react. She paused here, struggling for how to say what she meant, "I use this hectic pace to avoid dealing with the emotional fallout. It's not a new trick, just one I thought I had outgrown." She shut her eyes tightly, scrunching her face. "I am running as fast as I can, but I am going nowhere. Nowhere at all." She paused giving him time to speak, but he sat silently, entranced at her words, hypnotized by her honesty, her calm, her forthrightness in talking to him as a person for the first time…ever.

"I know from what you, Bill and Jason have told me that from your perspective I have been gone for a year, hell, more than a year. From my perspective I have been gone about 20 minutes and you," tears came to her eyes now, "You, Eric Northman just a few hours ago, fed me to Russell Edgington, and then told me that the man I thought I knew, that I thought I loved, had never ever truly loved me at all." The smirk had disappeared by now from Eric's face. His eyes locked to hers.

"If I take the time to process what has happened, I will likely be able to appreciate that the bearer of bad news is not necessarily the one who should be punished. If I have the time to think about it, I may be able to appreciate that the plan that got me drained to the near to the point of death for the _second time_, in as many days, was also the plan that saved my life. If I have the time to think about it, I may also be able to see the wisdom of an alliance with an old and powerful ally like you." Surprise now colored Eric's expression. Telling her that for all his song and dance, he never really thought she would say yes. She sat back, crossing her arms over her chest. He had underestimated her.

Did he think that she was so foolish as to not recognize the need for an ally, and a strong one at that? She was coming to that realization _before_ the Fae joined the fray.

"What I _can_ tell you," she said quietly, leaning toward him, "Is that I can never be with you the way I was with Bill." Was that a fleeting look of disappointment she saw?

"You are saying that you would never be mine?" Yes, she was sure now, that was disappointment in his tone, and on his face.

"You misunderstand, Eric. When I said I could never be with you the way I was with, Bill, I meant I could never let myself be so trusting and naive ever again. That no matter what you might or might not deserve, the woman you want "everything" from is broken. She is even more broken than she was when you met her. She is broken and she is angry, and she no longer, or maybe more accurately, once again, no longer believes in happy endings. That love conquers all. That there is someone for everyone, and all that other happy horse shit that people say to themselves to get through the day."

Her tone was bitter and cold as she said these words, her lips snarled and anger ruling her features as she looked him, focused that directly on him. It fell like waves crashing, crushing him. His first true look at her, inside her, at the mess that he had helped to create by exposing Compton's lies, by pursuing his vengeance and bringing Russell to Bon Temp, by telling her she was' too important throw her life away', and then rolling back on that…well,_ seeming_ to roll back on that, and offering her up as a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter.

Eric knew he might not have painted this picture of bitterness, rage and loneliness in front of him, but he had framed it. He had centered it on the wall, hung it, and in doing so had effectively hung himself. She was _right there_, and she was million miles away. So fucking beautifully broken that he wanted to throw himself on her jagged edges and let the blood flow. Let the blood pay recompense for errors and sleights that it might heal, that it might save.

"If you can manage to convince me to give you "everything", I don't think you are going to like what you find, Eric. There are some dark places in me now, places that even I have no refuge from. They are sharp, and moldy and they burn me," a single tear slipped down her cheek now from her right eye, following the curvature of her face, to hang on her jaw momentarily before dropping to her robe. "They will burn you, too!" she whispered savagely. Her eyes pressed into him and he wondered if this is what glamour was like from the other side. She silently demanded that he retract his request, and walk away while her words thrashed him, shoved him. "I will make sure you get to feel it, too!"

"Is that what you want, Sookie? Truly? To take me inside you until I can feel is your dark burning me? To cut me on your edges and watch the blood run? Truly?" He was sitting forward now on his chair, eye fucking her, burrowing into her mind, pressing for truth and wishing for the thousandth time that he could just fucking glamour it out of her so for once and damn all he could know the fucking truth about her, and then in turn himself. Did he understand her as well as he thought he did?

She leaned back now, crossing her arms again, surveying him with her detached gaze. "I don't know, I need time to process everything that has happened. Time to think about all the things I know should hold sway, and temper my rage. Time to appreciate…you. Unless the truth I have shared with you has changed your mind about what you think you want from me? Do you no longer wish to be mine?" She smiled when she said it, a glimmer of humor but a dash of truth. His smirk surfaced, again and he inclined his head to her.

"Vampires do not belong to humans, Sookie. You know this, and it would be a mistake to let that notion live, even in jest."

"Hrm," she said, moving her hand to her face and relaxing against her folded arm on the surface of the table. "Perhaps I don't understand the term correctly then." She hesitated a moment. "Russell humiliated me, you know? When we were in the library and he was quizzing me about what I was. He said, '_Oh, sweetheart. You really don't know anything at all, do you?' _and it really pissed me off that he was right. I didn't know anything at all. Bill had hidden so much from me that I was ignorant and defenseless in the face of that ancient monster." Her anger flared again and then slipped back beneath the surface.

"So, Eric, tell me, what _do_ you mean when you say that you want me to be yours?

Hearing her say the words, and thinking of their meaning momentarily left him speechless as he conjured images of her belonging to him.

"I would drink from you whenever I wanted. Only ever me. It would be forbidden for another to touch you. However, me you could not deny. You would pleasure my body at my demand, again, only me, only ever me, never to be denied, no matter my wish. You would do as I told you, no questions, and no doubts. No exceptions ever. In return I would protect you from all others and provide for your welfare and safety. You would share yourself with me in every way, tell me, touch me, give me anything and everything I ask you for, and in time anticipate even the things I don't. You would become a part of me, and I would care for you as I do myself. You would hold nothing back from me. You wouldn't want to. I would show you the world, and I would teach you how to make sure you were never taken advantage of by the likes of Compton ever again."

Sookie didn't speak right away, which made it seem like she was listening, rather than just using the time he was talking to think of what she was going to say next. Slowly, she stood at her kitchen table, looking slightly down into Eric's smug expression as he defined his slavery, and thought that she would simply sign on the dotted line and take that lemon home. She slowly took a step back from him, and he mostly expected her to run. Instead, her face and hands started to glow, her stance shifting into a fighting position.

Eric's response was conditioned and automatic when he assumed an attack posture of his own. Vampire and Fae know each other of old, and while this was new for Sookie and Eric, the world is too old to have seen anything new for a very long time. Sookie's lavender glow filled the kitchen now and her voice was deeper and more resonant than it had been before the fireworks started. She was more confident than angry now.

"Vampires do not belong to humans, I agree with this. I am not human." Eric actually blinked at that, and while he heard the words and comprehended their meaning, he was lost as to what they meant in the grander scheme of things.

"What would you have then, Fae? A vampire on a leash that you can lead at will? A slave of your own?" Contempt for this idea making him spit the words out like they burned his tongue.

"Vampire, I do not know what I would have of you if anything at all. I seek only to illustrate that never, ever will be heel for you, never ever will I be at your beck and call and never ever will you be able to force me to do it."

"You could _choose_ to do it, Sookie."

"Eric, my broken heart feels like I already did, and that it didn't work out so well. Tell me, would you _choose_ to do it for me? Would you choose to be mine if I were the stronger, wiser, older one in this scenario?"

"Yes!" he said, not hesitating.

"Why?" she asked tilting her head in genuine surprise at his quick and passionate response.

"Because some things are worth more than pride, Sookie." Her glow slowly began to diminish and in a few seconds she was just plain old Sookie Stackhouse again. Arms crossed protectively across her chest, staring at him like she was seeing something she didn't understand.

"Leave now, Eric. I need to think over what has happened, what has been said and figure out what I want now."

"From me?"

"Pfft, Northman, the whole fucking world doesn't revolve around you!"

"It doesn't?" One eyebrow going up in mock surprise.

"No, and I know that because it revolves around**_ me!_**" a secret smile playing hide and seek on her face. The first glimpse of the Sookie he knew since he arrived. It was comforting, and confusing all at the same time. He had wanted the old Sookie, but this new one, she drew him, too. Could there be some way to have both? _Ha!_ His mind whispered, _you haven't even managed to get ONE of them to agree to be yours, and now you think you can handle both Sookie Stackhouses?_

"Come back here in two days, Eric. Know what you want, if anything from me. There will be truth on that night, even if a river of blood runs from its roots. You are not the only one who _requires _things."

"What do you require, Sookie?"

"Change. I require change." He bowed slightly at the waist and exited from her squeaky backdoor before flying off into the night. Sookie wasn't the only one who needed to process.


	2. Why?

A/N- Thank you for the feedback. Appreciate you all taking the time to tell your thoughts. :)

Twenty Questions

Chapter 2- Why

Sookie was sitting on the porch swing when Eric landed in her front yard. Two days had passed since last they spoke and she had used her time to think of his words to her and what she wanted from her life. Her body was leaned forward, elbows on her knees, unconsciously mirroring body language she had seen from him numerous times in the past. It indicated that she was anxious.

Eric recognized that anxiety, and the body language. He filed it away, feeling it was significant that she would mirror him, but not yet understanding what it meant.

"Hello, Sookie." Eric broke the silence first, wanting to get underway with this discussion. He had spent his two days thinking through what he had said to her and how he could bring it to fruition as soon as possible. What enticements he might offer, though he could hardly think of anything better than claiming her, and that the claiming in itself would be enough for most, more than enough. He had been slightly at a loss, as usual with her, as to why he was judged and found so lacking that he needed to sweeten the pot to win her. He was not surprised when her response to his greeting was to jump right in with what had her so wired up.

"Why do you want me, Eric?"

His lack of surprise however, in no way prepared him to be ready for her question. "W-What?"

"You said, 'I would drink from you, that you would take my body whenever you pleased, that you would protect me, and teach me, and that for me there would only ever be you'. What you didn't tell me was why. Why, Eric. Why do you want me?"

In all of his thoughts as to how to get her, to keep her, to own her, he had never let himself consider why. Why had ceased to matter a millennia ago. The answer was always the same, _because he could_. Now though, she had put that right in front of him and he paused to think. _Why?_ Before Dallas, it was because he could. After Dallas, it was because…of Godric. Her time with him on that roof was a tie between the two of them. Of him owing her…something. Something for doing what he could not, being there for Godric in his last moments. Showing him love when he could not. Eric had waited on the other side of the light tight door and listened to their words tears running down his face.

_"A human with me at the end, and human tears. Two thousand years and I can still be surprised. In this I see God."_

What could ever be enough to repay that?

"Because I owe you," he finally answered.

"Owe me for what?" Sookie was clearly surprised by his answer.

"For Godric." She waited a moment, thinking it over, trying to connect the dots and see it the way he did. Finally, she sighed, leaning back, crossing her legs and her arms.

"I want to say that doesn't make any sense at all, but when I put Gran in place of Godric and imagine how grateful I would be if I knew you had been there to hold her hand as she passed on, I reckon I would feel a debt of gratitude to you as well." She paused, looking at him, the soft light from inside illuminating his features. "If I am seeing this correctly, you see what you are offering me as a kindness, or a gift, right?"

He stepped back, his face suddenly inscrutable and his voice tight. "It is a gift! My protection, my blood! No one else has ever been offered this!" She could tell she had insulted his pride, which had not been her intention at all. She stood, moving toward him slowly.

"Why, Eric? Why 'only ever you'? If I can accept what I see as slavery you see as a gift, what does that have to do with 'only ever you'? If you are telling me the truth," she pressed, eyes narrowing as she looked at him intently, "This "gift" I has already been paid for through my service to Godric on that roof in Dallas. Why could you not offer me these things and not make me a slave, forcing me to pay further for what you tell me is already mine by right. Why, Eric? Why 'only ever you'?"

She was flush against him, now. Having prowled right up to him, eyes locked with his. Again he recognized his body language, his aggressiveness and again it struck a chord but she was right there, and he couldn't disengage from the moment and retreat into his head. She was right there. Looking up at him, ready to pounce on the slightest change in his facial expression and press him to the truth.

His hands clenched at this sides as he reflexively leaned into her body, savoring her warmth, the feel of her soft flesh, willingly pressed to him. His fists floated to her face, one on each side cupping her cheeks, begging to open, that his palms might drink in the touch of her as well. He knew he was supposed to speak, but couldn't find the words to say.

Her hands came up and covered his fists on each side of her face. Their warmth making him shudder, and lean closer into her. Eyes locked with his, her hands over his started to emit a soft lavender light and he felt a tingle run up his arms. "Show me," she demanded softly.

He felt her enter his mind, and gasped for air at the shock of it. It wasn't telepathy, a simple reading of thoughts, a light fingering of the moments that made him who he was, it was soul jacking, cracking. It was what sex tried to be, a joinin,g a true joining where nothing could ever be held back or hidden. No one had ever been this naked in the history of the world. He had once fantasized that he wanted her to know him, to know he played by the North Sea a child, to smell his memories. This is was that and more, so much more.

There was a moment of resistance, of instinctively pushing this new and frightening experience away and then he realized that she had just given him what he had always wanted. His resistance faded and she was simply there with him.

"Tell me why, Eric," her voice in his mind was like rain on the window, pelting softly hypnotic. It was like silk on the skin, sensuous and warm and perfect and he surrendered past ecstasy, past pleasure, past all sense of self and let her come in.

She saw herself through his eyes, at Fangtasia with Bill for the first time, and felt his interest, his attraction to her. She saw all the things he would do with her body when he got her away from Compton. None of them surprised her, nor did her physical reaction to his thoughts. She was attracted to him, and she now accepted that.

If Eric had not been so lost in sensory overload from her presence inside him then he would have been able to feel her attraction to him as well, but this was too new, too visceral to separate her from himself. He assumed it to be his lust he felt.

She pressed on the seeing him the night the Maenad attack, his desire increasing when she cleaned his clock over Lafayette in the basement. His opening blatant expression of desire that he perhaps he would "grow on her."

She pressed deeper, looking for something other than his desire to conquer and own her. Her pressing need to find something else belying her supposed disdain of his offer to her. If she hadn't wanted to believe it then she would have taken the first memory and claimed it proved her point.

Adjusting to this intrusion Eric found his ability to reason returning to him. He was still unbelieving that she was doing this, whatever this was, but had found some small place to stand in his mind and reached out to her, wanting to help her find what she was seeking.

"Because of this," he said guiding her to the rooftop in Dallas. The sun was nearly up and he was being forced to walk away from his Maker. She took his hand, and said, '_I'll stay with him, no matter how long it takes.'_ In that moment, that perfect moment in time when I could do so much, I could kill and rend and burn that fucking building to the ground, but I couldn't stay. I couldn't be there with Godric. That simple thing was beyond all my power. When I was powerless, you saved me."

He felt her nod in understanding. "Show me '_everything_' between us as you offer it." It was a command and he had no choice but to open himself further to her.

He showed her the two of them together, bodies interlocked, straining, lost in passion. She looked ecstatic while he pounded into her body, fangs locked in her neck, her legs around his hips. A collage of erotic images filled his mind and in turn hers, showing all the things that he longed to do with her body. She noticed that the setting for them looked familiar.

In one they were resting on white satin sheets, the hotel in Dallas, both naked and twined intimately. His kisses demanding she pay homage while he whispered to her that 'This is the Beginning.' Another showed them again in Dallas, this time on red sheets as he leans over her on the bed, her fingers on his fangs as his eyes roll back in ecstasy at her touch just before he bites her offered neck. Again a familiar setting.

Sookie was not a spectator in this theatre of Eric's mind. In this intimate connection she felt his passion, his desire, his tenderness his protective instincts toward her when he imagined these things. She soaked in his fantasy of coming to her in Jackson, and having her do pretty much what she was doing right now. Taking him. Making him hers. She too was in the moment, but at last she had some understanding of why her insistence that she was not human and why he should be hers was so disturbing to him. It was a little too close to home.

Nodding her head, inside his mind and outside she made a decision then herself.

Leaving his mind she took them into hers. She took him to the dream of him that she had the day after taking his blood for the first time.

"_I used to think that you were made of cold hard stone, and empty inside."_

_"And now?"_

_"You're a big faker. You're deep. You feel. There's love in you."_

_"Only for Sookie."_

_"This is the Beginning…"_

She felt his shock and surprise at seeing how from there the images flowed into his memories of the dream. It was like finding out you weren't really at the beginning after all, but had come in somewhere in the middle and thought you knew the whole story.

She took him next her dream of coming to him after Godric had burned. She walked him down the hall with her, letting him feel her sorrow, her desire to comfort and share the experience she had just had. She lets him feel her heart speed up when she realizes that Eric has left his door open for her, and her hesitation to enter, and her inability to leave him mourning alone.

She lets him feel how much she wants to offer him comfort, and knows from her own experience with Bill after Gran, this was a pure offering of the self. The only sacrifice worthy to heal such a broken heart. She knew when she entered the door there was no comfort that she would not offer him. She let him see her kiss his tear stained cheeks in tenderness, and his desperate grab of her hand when he seemed to want nothing she had to offer, only to pull her back to him.

This was how she wound up on the bed, caressing his fangs, and allowing him to bite her. Again, surprise, though less this time.

He could feel the truth of her and her of him.

Slowly, she withdrew from him. Pulling her mind back gently, the glow in her hands fading. She saw him blink and felt him move slightly, shifting away and then back to her again. She thought he wanted to run from her, and the invasion she had just committed. They were too far in to run now though.

Her hands left his and moved to his neck as she pulled him down and kissed his forehead softly. It was a slow lingering kiss that then moved to his checks, as it had in the dream.

"I understand," was all she said her voice a little unsteady. She moved back and sat on the swing again, breaking the contact between them.

"We seem to want the same thing," she began, a little surprised herself at the realization. "The problem is that we are nowhere near the water."

"I don't understand," he said moving to sit beside her.

"Your mind tells me that all the things you truly want from me, begin with the things that I want from you." He nods.

"And what do you want from me, Sookie?" She stands and walks into the house. She is gone but a minute when she comes back out with a bag that she has packed. She sets it down, locks the door behind her and then turns to Eric.

"I want to leave Bon Temp with you, tonight." He jumped to his feet.

"You will live with me in Shreveport?" he asked excitedly.

"No, not now, and maybe not ever. I want you take me away from here. Not just Bon Temps but Louisiana, hell, probably the US, but I will leave that to you."

She picked up the bag and hung it over her shoulder, looking at him.

"Well, Northman, are you in or are you out?"


	3. Where?

A/N -Thank you all so much for your comments, favorites and follows. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to tell ya'll a story and tuck you in night. :)

Chapter 3 –Where

This, _this_ was why he hated her. In a thousand years no one had ever pushed him, pulled him, and fucked with his head the way she did. No one expected anything of him at all, they were too busy trying to please him and curry his favor, his attention, or hiding from him in fear when they pushed too hard to get it and he reminded that them that behind that beautiful mask lurked a monster.

Of course this is why he loved her, too.

Eric had spent his two days, not that he would ever admit this, planning and practicing what he would say to her when they met again. He wanted to present things in a way that would be positively received, and welcomed even. He had gone all alpha the other night, and that had not gone over well at all.

And for all his planning and plotting he had barely been able to get a word in edgewise, or a thought for that matter either. _What the fuck was this new thing she was doing? Had she learned that in Faerie? _It intimated him, and at the same time made it want to flop over and let her rub his belly. _Damn, that was new, too. Intimidation? Submission?_

What the fuck do you do when the powers that be suddenly start granting the secret wishes of your soul?

He was standing in front of her, her bag was over her shoulder and she was looking at him expectantly.

"Well, Northman, are you in or are you out?"

"I-uh, need a minute, I need to think," he sat back down on the swing, his elbows now on his knees, his body leaning forward, and she standing in front of him. They had swapped positions from earlier that night.

Sookie shrugged, dropping the bag on the porch and leaning back against the railing, crossing her arms. She remained silent as Eric's mind raced to make sense of where he was, and what this meant.

"Where do you want to go, Sookie?" He realized suddenly that she said not here, not Shreveport, not Louisiana, not the US?

"Not sure specifically."

"Are you just running away? I am not clear on the goal." He watched her uncross her arms and stalk toward him, right up between his legs, forcing him to lean back, uncross his hands and open up to accommodate her.

Her hands moved to his head, first cupping the back of his neck, and then moving up to thread her fingers through the strands of his hair. His eyes drifted closed at her touch. She was close enough that he could rest his chin on her chest, and when he opened his eyes he was looking up at her downturned face. She wasn't really seeing him. Her voice sounded far away when she spoke.

"I thought a lot the last couple of days about where I am, who I am, and what I wanted, what I needed. Do you have any idea what it feels like to have been gone for year and see that the world went on without just fine? Folks got together and fell apart, the sun rose and the sun set and Sookie Stackhouse was gone for all of it, and it all still happened. Life moved on, for everyone but me. Life can't move on in twenty minutes." She paused here still touching him, now gently massaging his neck. His hands moved down her back coming to rest on her waist, ready to hold her there if she pulled back. She didn't.

"I thought about how many things I had lost, or that had been taken from me and how much it all hurt. All the vampires and other things that wanted to hurt me, and could hurt me, and then I thought about you."

"You think I would hurt you, Sookie?" Eric's tone was soft, his chin still resting on her chest.

"I dunno, Eric. You've seen in the things I showed you tonight that I want…I want believe that you care about me. But I have been such a fool, over Bill and so many things. I think I realize now that just because I want a thing, doesn't mean I am going to get it."

"If you are not sure that I won't hurt you, and that I care about you, then why ask me to leave with you?"

"Because you offered to teach me, Eric. The other night you said you would teach me how to make sure that no one like Compton ever hurt me again. I think about you and I think how you lived a thousand years, and I don't even really know what that means. It's so big I can't even get my head around it. What I do know is that you are a survivor, Eric. You're smart and wily and you can teach me, if I let you. Will you teach me?"

"Yes, I can show you how to survive," he hesitated. "I can do that here though, Sookie. We don't need to leave to do that."

"I can't break out of myself and learn to be someone new here, Eric. Everywhere I look I see memories of…of my past, and my mistakes and I need to be somewhere new, Eric, so I can be someone new." She was holding his head now, looking into his eyes, willing him to understand that she needed this, and that she believed he could give it to her.

"I know it's asking you to give up a lot, Eric. I will understand if you would rather stay here with Pam and Fangtasia. Really, I will, but I am leaving tonight with or without you." He frowned at her.

"You know I would never let you go, Sookie. I can find you through our bond that we made in Dallas."

"Yes, you could Eric. But the simple truth is that if you feel it's more important to stay here, than to come with me, then you will not come looking for me either. Besides, hauling me back here, and keeping me against my will, that will never get you where you want to be."

"And where do you think I want to be?"

"Between my legs," she responded smiling slightly at his consistency and her audacity to just roll it out there like that. Eric's response was to pull her deeper into the V of his legs and lean up to feather kiss her lips.

"Saucy wench," he whispered, his tongue slipping out to trace her bottom lip, slowly. She leaned down to him slightly, not only allowing but encouraging his exploration.

She let him kiss her for several minutes, gently exploring the land he had plundered in his office that night so long ago. "It won't be easy, Eric. I told you the other night that I was broken, and that hasn't changed."

"Umm," he said, continuing to tease her lips open. Wanting to deepen the kiss, wanting to hear what she had to say because he knew it was important, and wanting her to shut up and kiss him back, to let him have this that he had waited so long for. He never waited for anything, ever! He just took what he wanted, and he wanted to take this, her, now. He reigned himself in, not letting her go from his grasp, but pausing in his one vampire crusade to conquer this holy land.

"Where do you want to go, Sookie?" He licked his lips, savoring the taste of her willing kisses on his skin.

"I want you to take me where you started, Eric. Vikings come from Sweden, right? I have never asked you where you were from, or who you were before you were turned." Eric blinked again.

"Why in the hell would you want to go there, Sookie?"

"The tie between us, at least the beginning of it, was Godric. I want to know you as he did, and I want to know him through you." She whispered the words, softly, hoping to lessen the pain they might inflict at dragging these memories up again. She felt his hands clench on her back as he absorbed her words. "He was a survivor, too. I think you both can teach me the things I need to know." She kissed his forehead again, softly. He turned his face to the side and closed his eyes, hugging her tighter as he thought about what she was asking him to do.

So many memories, some crystal clear, some fuzzy with time, roads walked, and choices made. How long had it been since he had thought about the path that had brought him to door of Sookie Stackhouse? At what point did everything become so mediocre that there was no point in remembering anything anymore? When had he lost track of that part of himself? How could he find it?

At that moment, his face buried in the softness of her breasts and their arms around each other, he realized that if he agreed to do this he would be leaving himself behind. The self he had created on his journey here would be unzipped on his journey back to the beginning. Did he want that? Was she worth that? _Yes, she probably is_, he thought, but what tipped the scale was the realization that along the path he would be able to mourn Godric, at last. Remembering and then allowing himself to let it all go, and move on. Movement was life, and he needed to accept Godric's actions. If he could understand them, then perhaps he could avoid rooftops in his own future.

At first it had seemed like this was only about, Sookie, but now he saw he it was for him as well.

He had another flash of being behind that light tight door in Dallas.

_You will care for him? Eric?_

_I dunno, you know how he is…_

"If we do this, will you take more of my blood and bond with me?" He looked up at her again, pulling himself from his reverie between her breasts.

"I dunno, Eric. What does it mean to be 'bonded' to you?"

"It means that I can find you if you are in trouble, you know that already. It also means that you would dream of me again, and if we share blood three times you would be able to feel my emotions as well as me feeling yours." She moved now, to sit beside him on the swing, distancing herself while she thought over his request.

"Bill told me in Dallas that it would make me sexually attracted to you. Is that true? That I could want you, only because of the blood we shared?"

He took her hand, stroking it. "Yes, the magic of the bond is, at its root, designed to keep our source of food and comfort at our side willingly. Before you say no, remember that I too am offering myself to you, to know me through the bond, to feel my emotions, to be a part of me."

"So, this is an important tool for you to be close to me , connected and know when I am being truthful with you?"

"Yes, that as well. It would also mark you as mine in the vampire world. No other could touch you without my permission or it would be within my right to end them." He sensed her hesitation, and while to some degree he understood it, it stung that she didn't immediately leap at the offer to be his, to feel him.

She took a deep breath, and reached for his hand, entwining their fingers. She started to glow again, and he could hear her in his mind.

_I have an alternative offer. For now, at least, I am not comfortable bonding with you. I don't mean to hurt you, I am not rejecting you, Eric. I want to be close to you, but I want to be sure that it is ME that wants it, and not the Bond that wants to make sure I don't leave you when you need a snack._

_There is no question, I will feed you, and care for you on this journey and I expect you to do the same for me, on faith and hope and a bond that exists between is because of Godric. In honor of his memory._

_I know you need a way to learn to trust me, so instead of the ability to read my emotions in blood I offer you this…_

Suddenly he was inside Sookie's mind, standing at an entry way. He looked around and found her standing beside him holding her hand here as she was on the porch.

_I don't understand_, he heard himself think.

_I will grant you access to my mind when you want it, as you have me to yours. _

_I will trust you to come here, of your own accord and see the truth of my words whenever you need until we have trust between us._

_This will not protect you from other vampires, Sookie._

_Do you think we will meet so many, in the beginning at least? I would have some time with you just you, Eric. Away from everyone and everything to know you better. Is that not possible? We could revisit the need for a bond of protection later, couldn't we?_

He thought it over. Yes, they could take their time with this, and what she was offering him was no less than what he had offered her, more in some ways. He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it softly.

_Yes, this is acceptable._

They were back on the porch now still holding hands and looking at each other. When Eric had left Shreveport tonight he had planned to convince her to be his and to have her screaming his name as he took her over and over until dawn. There could be no other outcome.

Except that there had been. A possibility that he had not even allowed himself consider because he thought he knew her so well, and she was predictable. He snorted at his own short sightedness. If this had been a battle to the death he would be dust in the wind. How would he ever be able to conquer this creature? This marvelous, confounding, beautiful creature that left him in pieces at every turn.

She wanted him to go back, remember the man he had been a thousand years ago, and show her his humanity. At this point he felt it was quite an assumption that there had ever been any in him to start with. There was certainly none left.

Only she would ask of this of him.

He would have done it, even without the invocation of Godric. The addition of Godric in her words made this feel ordained in some way though, to know his Maker had a hand in this, that he would be Sookie's Maker in a way as well.

Would she want to see him and know him when they left the path of humanity and embraced the monster he had become along the way? Would she run then, and scream that there was nothing she could learn from a monster? Probably. It would take a while for him to get his mask off though, so they had time.

There was always the chance that she would see his monster and stay. It wasn't likely but it was an option and if tonight had taught him anything it was he had to consider it. He would never win this crusade if he didn't allow himself to learn from his mistakes.

"I'm in."


	4. When?

A/N- Ok, we knew it was coming, lemony goodness at twelve o'clock! Thanks again for the feedback, follows and reads. I love writing this for ya'll! muah!

Chapter 4- WHEN

They landed in Eric's yard at his house in Shreveport an hour before dawn that night. Sookie had wanted to be gone before then, but had to respect that daylight would serve as a huge impediment to her education if her teacher wasn't tucked away before sunrise.

He had led her inside, parked her on the couch and immediately started making phone calls. Pam, Burnham, the AVL to file travel plans to Sweden for the next night with Anubis Air. She sat on his couch and watched him pace back and forth while he gave orders on the phone. She wasn't listening to his words, she was watching him, his body language, and his pacing, mentally ticking things off in her mind.

In addition to marking his mannerisms and his tones, part of her watched his grace, and his unconscious masculinity that was evident in every little nuance of his movement. He was totally confident in each step and in each word, in himself. Why wouldn't he be? After all, there just feet away from her, was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, and either before they went to bed tonight or first thing in the morning she was going to feed him. That was her end of the agreement between them.

She remembered from being with Bill that fangs piercing her were always enough to make her climax, though to be fair, Bill had almost never bitten her unless they were fucking. Is that what Eric would expect, too, when she fed him? Is that what she expected… what _she_ wanted when she fed him?

She felt her body start to respond to these thoughts and shifted in her seated position to try and release some of the tension that was building when she thought of him like that. It was inevitable that before this was over they would become lovers. She knew she wanted him too much already to be able to hold out very long, even if the feeding didn't send her over the edge, the alone time in a foreign country with kisses like the ones he had given her tonight on the porch would seal their fate.

She needed it to be on her terms though. She needed to be the one who initiated and controlled. That would allow her to indulge and satisfy this need that was cranking up each time he stalked past her still talking on the phone.

If Eric had been paying attention he might have noticed the shift in her body language again. On the sofa she had been sitting with her legs crossed, demure as any southern belle could be. If he had been looking when she rose to approach him, he would have seen his own flinty expression on her face. His own strutting walk as she came toward him. His own confidence when she turned him to her. If he had been expecting what came next he might have been able to prepare for it in some way. When she spoke her tone was confident, calm and demanding. There was no doubt he would comply, and so he did.

"Get off the phone, Eric. I want to feed you, now." He stopped midsentence, and hit the END button in the middle of someone replying. "Take me to where you rest for the day." She reached up and grabbed his neck, leaping up and locking her legs around his waist, ankles crossed behind his back. This put her face to face with him and she pulled him toward her for a deep hot kiss. She broke the contact after a minute or so, and leaned in, kissing his neck and nibbling his ear. She felt him moving her toward his resting place. There was a hidden door, some panel somewhere, and a keypad that beeped when the code was entered.

She was lost in feeling his body between her legs, and the taste of him on her tongue. A door closed and he turned into her, kissing her back now, growling softly in his chest as he experienced a dream come true in his arms. She was _here_ and she wanted _him_!

He laid her back on the bed, and moved to lay on top of her. She kept her legs around his waist, and moaned herself when he pressed his hard length between her legs. "More!" she demanded, reaching for his pants to push them down, his shirt to push it up. "More of you," she moaned again, her hands moving over his shoulders to pull him down and onto her body.

Eric, caught up in her frenzy, and the realization of his dream was completely in the moment. Later, he would realize that this was as much of a miracle as the woman in his arms being there willingly. He was _never _in the moment. He was miles in front of it, thinking his thoughts, and planning his plans and he never ever got to just feel, just _be_ in the moment. He was always outside, validating the results he expected when predicted events occurred. Always removed and never a part of anything. Now, he was creating the realization that was yet to come.

When he came down on top of her, she grunted and flipped them over, placing her on top. She sat back, now both of them totally naked, her legs tucked to the outside of his. She reached down and pulled him into a sitting position. She was splayed on his lap, legs straddling, his throbbing cock nestled between them, her hand wrapped around him, stroking him.

"Tell me," she demanded. "Tell me what it feels like when I touch you like this," she squeezed him again at the base while she sucked his neck in deep open mouth kisses that had him going crazy. Cum dripped from the tip of his cock, and she immediately used it to lubricate her hand, increasing his pleasure, and through that her own. He moaned. Unable to think, only respond as she touched him like this.

"Need you, needyousomuch!" he groaned through his clenched jaw, his hips thrusting into her hand, blindly he reached for her.

"Tell me why, Eric. Why do you want to be inside me?" she pressed him now, holding her own loss of control back, wanting his words more than anything, wanting to please him, to make him feel all the things that someone should feel when they are made love to. All that things that she would want to feel if he made love to her. If he worshiped and adored her, placing her needs above his own. Needing to take her to a place where there would never ever be any doubt that in this moment she was seen, that she was loved.

She shifted and positioned him at her entrance, slowly working him through her slick hot folds. She felt him leaking again, adding to the mix when he jerked in her hand, stomach muscles quivering when his head rolled back, mouth open gasping for air he didn't need. She took him inside her an inch, holding herself up with her legs, her hand still anchored around his shaft. She would not let him slide all the way in yet.

She leaned up and breathed hotly into his ear. "Do you know it's me, Eric? Do you know that you are inside Sookie, right now? Tell me. Do I feel different? Do you know me?" She was losing control now herself and with that last question hot and breathy in his ear she had let herself slip down and take in several more inches of him, she gasped at the end, he felt so unbelievably goddamned good when he stretched her open.

Her jagged sobbing intake of breath in his ear, turned out to be what undid him. It was like hearing a drowning victim gasp for air, and _he_ did that to her. That was _him_, taking her breath away.

His hands had been bunched in the covers of the bed, fisting open and closed as she worked his cock in her hand. He arched pushing to get into deeper into her pussy. His hands abandoned the covers and tangled in her hair, pulling her head back, roughly sweet. His large hands cupping, holding stroking her. His hands, how she loved them when they touched her, when they didn't. She loved his hands.

"That was me," he said still through clenched teeth, grinding his cock in her hand, pushing harder to get more into her slick heat. "I made you gasp like that!" his voice was low and gravelly, lips right against her ear. His stubble burned her skin as his head moved back and forth on her check. "Do I know it's you, Sookie?" He gasped now as he felt her let go of his cock and then move down, taking him all the way into her. "I've always known it was you. Only ever you."

She grunted when she came down on him, and started riding him immediately, squeezing him inside her and holding tight when she flexed up, milking him, wanting him to cum for her. "mmmmmm…eeric!" she moaned, lost. She heard the snick of fangs and felt the steel of his arms around her, and she turned her head, offering him neck, her hands pulling his head in to nestle at the curve where her neck met her shoulder. He growled, possessively and then he was inside her again gulping her life's blood, sucking in time with assault he was committing between her thighs. The sensation was too much for her forcing her to come apart there in his arms. She came hard, chanting his name like prayer, riding him, head thrown back. "My, Eric!" She said mindlessly, unaware that once again she claimed him, baptized him. He called her name roaring, and came inside her, arms forcing her down as hard he could onto his cock, demanding she take it all.

She was sitting astride him still, panting in his arms as held her tight. One hand still tangled in her hair. She was kissing his shoulder softly, unthinkingly. It was there, it was him and she still wanted to pay homage. He had licked the bites closed on her neck, nicking his tongue to heal them.

He growled in her ear, possessively, bringing his head back around to claim her lips again. This time, his tongue pushed in and claimed this territory for Eric, "My, Eric!" she had said as she had writhed on his lap. Gods help him it was true, too. He had held out some strand of hope before this woman had stripped him bare but the truth was too plain now to be denied. He was hers. Totally. Completely. Irrevocably. Hers. He smiled into her hair.

"I'd like to go ahead and book a reservation for tomorrow night as well, please" he whispered in her tiny ear, still massaging her scalp and now kissing her neck softly. He heard her sigh softly and felt her settle further into his embrace. Her head turned and came to rest on his shoulder.

"Absolutely, Mr. Northman," she mumbled sleepily against his shoulder. "We will see what we can do to 'work you in'." He could hear her smiling as she teased him. Her arms settled around his middle as she hugged him close and mumbled as she drifted off. "So glad I didn't wait…"

He was, too.

He tucked her in and went back upstairs to get his phone. He had hung up on Pam in the middle of explaining that he was leaving town. Even though the sun would be rising soon she answered on the first ring.

"So what were you saying before dinner was served?" Her smug tone told me him that she had heard Sookie and knew what had been going on for the last thirty minutes. Fuck her, it was not her business to judge him.

"I am leaving town indefinitely, tomorrow night, Pam. You will be handling all Area 5 and Fangtasia business in my absence.

"Indefinitely?" her tone pressed him for more, but there were things he didn't' want to share with her.

"I have claimed Sookie and want some uninterrupted time to enjoy my good fortune." Hell, it was almost the truth.

"You're not going to tell me where you are going, Eric?" He heard the hurt in her voice. Pam always looked tougher than she was, sounded tougher than she felt. He didn't want this to turn into a thing between them.

"I will be in…Sweden for a time, and then traveling to some other places. I will check in periodically and you can always call my mobile if anything comes up that you can't handle. Really though, Pam, I know you can run this Area as well as I and have on occasion. You have a beautiful mind, Dearest."

"Yeah, and wicked left hook doesn't hurt either, ass kisser." He chuckled at her emotional evasiveness.

"No, I don't suppose it does." They were quiet for a minute, feeling the need to sleep but wanting to stay connected for a while longer. Finally, Pam folded.

"Eric, I know when she was gone, it was…hard for you. I know that you blamed yourself for her being gone because of what happened with Russell. I know…how close you came to….losing it," she said that last part in a whisper, as though speaking the words would bring back those dark times and consume him again. Perhaps she thought acknowledging his weakness for Sookie made _him_ weak, an idea she couldn't face. "This thing you are doing, promise me you will not let it take you there again. I don't think she is good for you, Eric. She rattles you, which in turn rattles me. I don't like being rattled."

Eric, remembered the past year, and the emptiness he had felt while she was gone, before pulling himself back to this conversation with Pam. _Guess I don't like being rattled either,_ he thought.

"If I get in trouble Pam, I will call you. You know that right?"

"Yes, I just don't like the idea of you getting in trouble, Eric. Who the fuck is the Maker in this relationship anyway? I am supposed to be one doing stupid shit, and you're supposed to be saving me, remember?"

"You can have the next turn, Pam. You can do the next stupid thing and I will be there to lecture you. Deal?"

"Hell no, this is worth the next three stupid things at least!"

"Fine the next three, all yours. Deal?"

"When you get back I will have all registered vampires in Area 5 wearing pink party hats and sacrificing virgins every Friday to appease the dark Tax God at the IRS."

"If anyone could it would be you, Pamela."

She sighed then, realizing that no amount of teasing or warning would turn him from his path. "Are you sure, Eric?"

"Never been more about anything, ever."

"I'll keep my phone charged and on standby for when this turns out to be the bad idea I am pretty sure it is."

They ended the call shortly after that and Eric returned to his bed. She as still there, curled up and waiting for him. _Waiting for him_, he said again to himself, choking on the bubble of excitement that rose in his throat.

Pam's words had brought back the past year for him, the emptiness that had consumed him, driven him to buy her house, and add a cubby for himself. Sookie hadn't mentioned the cubby so maybe she hadn't found it yet. He smiled to himself, imagining her stamping her foot in righteous indignation at the nerve of him, but the smile slowly faded. That Sookie, the foot stomping ranting Sookie was not there anymore. This woman in his bed seemed thoughtful, slow to anger and passionate in ways he couldn't have imagined her to be, even in his wildest dreams.

So, many days spent at her house, willing her to be there with him. Willing her to come home and see that he had protected her family legacy, restored it to a glory it had likely never known in its entire existence, for her. All of it was for her. Oh, how he had fucked up by not starting with, "I bought this house because I care about you." That had been one of his practiced opening lines, but when he had gotten in front of her, all naked and delectable he had lost track of what he wanted to say to win her and just started claiming her. How he longed to say those words, but more than that how he longed for her to say them to him, that she was his.

So many fantasies, all falling short of the woman who had fed and loved him a short while ago. He had heard people say that reality often falls short of the dream. He was so glad this was one instance where they had been wrong. Being with her was more moving than he could have ever dreamed. He wanted her again, now, but she was sleeping so peacefully. What would happen if he woke her to take her again before going to ground?

She said that he could enter her mind when he wished, but she hadn't really told him how. He lay down beside her sleeping form. She was on her stomach, one knee pulled up, and her hand out on the bed toward him. He covered it with his and mentally called her, _Sookie?_

Immediately he felt himself slip into her. Entering her this way was as intimate and as electrifying as entering her physically had been. For a moment or two he was overwhelmed his body tingling all over. After he began to calm down he saw that he was back at the entry way he had seen earlier, and though he was holding Sookie's hand in bed she was not present with him as she had been all the times before.

He moved through the archway and found himself in a round chamber filled with doors. There were six doors in front of him, all closed. In between the doorways the walls were bookshelves and many volumes were stored there. The ceiling was not in site and the shelves seemed to run as far as he could see. The floor was covered in black and white squire tiles. _Like a chessboard_, he thought.

_Where do these go_? he wondered. Suddenly, as if answer to his thought gold lettering appeared on each one. He went to the first one on this right and read, **_The Child_**. The next door had the same lettering, **_The Pixie_**. The third was labeled, **_The Cast Iron Bitch,_** the fourth **_Adele_**. The fifth door was labeled **_Bill_**, and the sixth, which made his mental knees feel weak, simply said **_Eric_**.

Mentally gathering himself, he approached the door labeled Eric and turned the knob. It was locked and wouldn't turn, but before he could step back and figure what he his next move would be a voice cut into him, causing him to jump and turn to face its source.

The door labeled **_The Cast Iron Bitch_** was open. The voice pierced him in word and sound like a knife to the heart.

**_"What the fuck, vampire? You can't get no pussy and blood in here, or are you so dumb you don't know that?"_**


	5. What?

A/N- Thank you, all for you reviews, and comments. More lemons, ahead. Enjoy!

Chapter 5 What

The door labeled **_The Cast Iron Bitch_** was open. The voice pierced him in word and sound like a knife to the heart.

**_"What the fuck, vampire? You can't get no pussy and blood in here, or are you so dumb you don't know that?"_**

Facing the source of the voice he saw…_Sookie?_ Moving toward her, he examined each detail of her appearance, pushing back the sting of her words to him, seeking to understand what was happening here.

"Sookie?" he asked, reaching out his hand for her, expecting that level of intimacy to be automatic at this point, given what they had shared earlier. She stepped back, hissing at him, her face covered in a look of contempt at his outstretched hand. _She hissed at him?_

"**_Hey, dontchou touch me you fuckin' fanger! Who the hell you think you are? Coming up in here like you own the fucking place, gettin' into things that are clearly none of your goddamned business!"_** She looked like Sookie. She sounded like Sookie. But this was not his Sookie.

He dropped his hand, and reached for his internal bearings. He was still in her mind, and so, in some way this must be her, this must be his Sookie…_what the hell was going on?_

**_"Your, Sookie! How fucking sweet! She spreads 'em for you one time, and lets you have a little snack and she is yours now, vamp?"_** her icy laugh makes his body hair stand up, how is that possible when I don't even have a body, he wondered.

"Who are you?" he asked her. Perhaps information gathering was the best tactic at this point.

**_"Hey genius, who the fuck do I look like?" _**She ran her hands over her body now, cupping her breasts suggestively and wiggling her ass back and forth**_. "Come on fanger, you know who I am. Surely yer brighter than the last one, ain'tcha?"_**

"The last one," he asked, already fearing he knew the answer. There was a door behind him with his name on it after all.

**_"Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllllllll,"_** the she demon that wore his lovers face before him howled, dropping down on the floor and humping air while she continued to touch herself suggestively. **_"You know Bill donthca, fanger? He used to fuck us, too, though I reckon you are better lay than that tight ass ever was. In fact," _**she continued, moving closer to him on her hands and knees,**_ "I bet I could get beneath that pretty, pretty mask of yours and find myself giving head to the devil himself."_** She stopped then about a foot away from him and started to masturbate herself through her clothing. **_"Oh, I likes 'em bad, fanger. Always did. You bad enough for me, Errrrric?" _** He stood there, too stunned to move, to respond, or even really think about what he was seeing.

**_"Jesus,"_** Sookie moaned in disgust dropping her hand from between her thighs, standing and looking at him like he was something stuck to her shoe**_. "You really are pathetic aren't ya, fanger. Not a goddamned clue what is happening here, huh?"_** She took a step back, and moving toward the open door.

**_"Fuck you, fanger, either grow a pair before you come back again, or stay the fuck outta here. She's been mine forever, and she will always be MINE! If you come back here… I will EAT…YOU…UP!"_** her face shifted as she said that last part, looking back over her shoulder. For just a second he thought he saw long sharp teeth, in an elongated jaw. Not human, not anything Eric had ever seen before at all really. The door labeled **_The Cast Iron Bitch_** slammed shut when she stepped in and Eric found himself back in bed with a still sleeping Sookie.

_What the fuck was that? _

He let go of her hand and left the bed to pace again. Whatever that had been it _looked _like Sookie, and it _lived_ in her mind. Fuck! _It lived in her mind_, which meant it was _part_ of her? Never in all the time had he known her had he seen that before. Never would he have guessed…! The way she spoke…the words…something about the words…hrm. If that truly was Sookie, was he safe beside her dead for the day? Would she hurt him when he was not able to defend himself? Had Pam been right after all?

Finally, deciding that he didn't really have enough information to decide anything at all and after pacing and ignoring the call of going to ground as long as he could, Eric returned to the bed, and gently pulled Sookie to him. She came into his embrace easily spooning with him, cooing softly as she settled again in his arms, never really waking up.

_Well,_ he thought as he closed his eyes and slipped into death, _she did say it wasn't going to be easy. _

When Eric woke up Sookie was still sleeping in his arms. It was a couple of hours before sunset, and he lay there watching her sleep thinking about what had happened this morning.

She had invited him into her mind, given him _carte blanche_ and then let that thing attack him when he got there? What was the point of that? She offered this bond in place of the blood bond and then withdrew the offer? Did she not want to be with him after all? Not thinking about his actions he brushed the hair back from her face. She moved closer to his hand, her eyes were still closed but her hand came up slowly and her fingers laced with his.

"Love your hands," she sighed softly taking them to her lips and then pressing her face against the back of his hand, using it for a pillow under her face. Feeling the warmth spread through his chest at her unfiltered sleepy adoration he found himself smiling and snuggling her closer.

"Why is that, Sookie?" he whispered in her ear. She shivered next to him.

"I love… how they touch…nothing feels like you touching me." She was still sleeping, right on that edge between waking and dreaming. She was being so free and relaxed right now she probably thought she was in fact dreaming.

Hating to break the mood, but needing information, Eric continued to hold her and whispered in ear, "Who is The Cast Iron Bitch, Sookie?" She moaned softly, her face scrunching up a little.

"She…protects," she answered in a tiny voice, sounding almost childlike.

"Protects who, Sookie?"

"Me…us"

"Who is 'us'?"

"All of me Eric, she protects, all of me."

"Can't I protect you?"

"But, who would protect me from you?" For a few minutes Eric didn't speak. He was thinking about her answer and his immediate thought that it was indeed a very good question. He could indeed protect her from everything but himself. Moving away from those thoughts for a minute he made himself take out the emotion and look at what had happened in the last 24 hours.

Sookie, gave him an all access pass to her mind, while refusing, for now, a blood bond, which would only have let him know how she was feeling and where she was. He repressed a shudder thinking how it would have felt to be bonded to and trapped in the emotion of the CIB, and not knowing that she only a _part _of Sookie.

_Was the CIB her true feelings?_ No, no, he thought, shaking his head. The CIB had talked a good game, but had not _made_ him leave, didn't even mention that she could. Instead, she tried to intimidate him into staying out of the one place that Sookie wanted him to be_._

_I don't think you are going to like what you find, Eric. There are some dark places in me now that even I have no refuge from. They are sharp and moldy, and they burn me…They will burn you, too. I will make sure they will!_

He had to have seen this before, right? Had he glimpsed the CIB three nights ago in the kitchen sitting across the table from him? _ Likely_, he thought.

Perhaps the day she watched Russell at Fangtasia while he "took a nap" as she called it.

No one knew but Eric had not really slept that day. He had not been able to with every fiber of his being trained on listening to make sure that Russell didn't get free, or harm her. If anything had gone even the slightest bit amiss he would he been out there faster than the eye could follow. He let himself play that back.

_Why are you carrying this around?_

_He was the love of my life._

_This isn't him._

_It will be._

_You think you can bring him back to life?_

_Of course not._

_Yes, you do. Somehow involving my blood?_

_FUCK YOU!_

Then Eric had heard the garbage disposal turn on, and Sookie was…well she was laughing…the same laugh he had heard in her mind this morning. Cold, maniacal…laughing at destroying the remains of Talbot, while Russell screamed his anguish. He had confirmed what he heard when he rose that night. It was easy enough since, Ginger had already washed the glass and had it sitting on the bar.

Sookie had finished disposing of Talbot. She had finished breaking Russell's heart. He remembered feeling strangely beholden to her again and slightly horrified that she had done something that he would have considered to be unthinkable to her in Dallas, just days before. He had registered the change in her, and wanted to ask her, but there was no time, and besides, they didn't' have that kind of relationship then any way. It wasn't like she would be grateful to him for pointing out that she was moving down the path of turning into a soulless fuck just like himself.

And then of course…after he broke her heart over Compton, she had disappeared. Time made it easy to forget something he didn't want to see in the first place. _He_ had done this to her, Compton, Sophie-Anne, Russell, _they_ had done this to her. What the fuck ever happened in Faery was probably not stacked in the "help" column either.

_She protects me…_

Yes, he could see why she would think she needed protection. He was still reeling that she felt she needed protection from him…not that he disagreed, just that she was _aware_.

And if she was aware, why had she surrendered to him a few hours ago? _Surrendered, hell! She had TAKEN him._ Why make his dreams come true only to take them back?

But had she taken them back? No, no she hadn't. Not even the CIB had taken it back! Her attacks were directed and designed to make him withdraw _on his own_, not for force him to leave what he had been offered.

Here beside him she had just pulled his hand beneath her face and snuggled next to him.

Eric believed that on some level, she knew about the doors and what they meant. But he also believed that she wouldn't have taken him if she hadn't truly wanted him.

Then it hit him.

_OH, FUCK!_ _Doors?_ He had only seen what was behind _one_ of them and there were _five more _to go!

_Am I in over my head here?_ Mentally running through her known list of family, friends and acquaintances, he concluded that other than him, there really was no one else.

Sookie had made it plain that her friends had moved on, and that for the most part she was ok with that. She had been gone a year, so being distanced from them was not unexpected. Her grandmother was dead. All she had left was him, and a fuckwit of a brother. This realization sobered him for a minute, evoking a fierce protectiveness in his chest. Eric, through Godric and Pam knew how important it was to not be alone.

"You are not alone, Sookie!" he whispered fiercely at the woman beside him.

"Course not, silly. I got you right here," she responded in sleepy tones, letting go of his hand and moving her arms around his neck while sliding her body up next to his. She kissed him softly on the cheek, hugged him closely and sighed softly in his ear.

"Mornin', teacher," she whispered, her grin evident in her voice. "I brought you some apples," rubbing her naked breasts against his chest suggestively. She sighed again when he cupped them in his hands, letting them rest in his palms.

Slowly, he started to massage them, enchanted as he watched her wake up under his touch and soft kisses that he covered her neck and shoulders with. Her face and skin flushing and blushing in turn. He watched her carefully for any sign that she was not enjoying his touch but found nothing other than warm willing Sookie, who wanted him as much as he wanted her.

He leaned down to kiss her lips, reverently and then as he slid deeper into the kiss, he rolled on top of her, feeling her move to open her legs for him, moaning when he positioned himself at her entrance, kissing down her chest, his gaze held hers as she watched him kiss his way around her chest, and gently suck her hard nipples, first one and then the other.

She writhed on the bed, pushing her hips against him, begging him wordlessly to give her what she needed now that he had fired her passion.

When he finally let his cock slide deep between her legs he held his body still, buried to the hilt in her tight slickness. He framed her face with his hands and slipped into her mind. The archway was still there, but instead of doors he saw all around him images of himself.

A collage of him, memories overlaying memories. There he was sitting on his throne at Fangtasia, smiling on her porch, looking at her in Dallas and telling her he would be fine as they took him to silver him. He spun around and found the biggest loudest image to be the one from this morning. It stood in the center of the chamber like a living statue. There he was rocking with her this morning, this image the brightest of all, and the desire he felt washing off from the image melded with his own in the moment and he could not contain it.

He was inside her body, her mind and despite having fed just last night, he wanted to taste her again, to have his fangs inside her as well. His need to possess her driven by the need to counter balance her ownership of him, pushed there by seeing his face the way she saw it, the way she remembered. Looking at himself through her eyes, he saw that he was lost in adoration of the woman in his arms. When that realization connected to the feeling he let go and let himself be taken away, again, lost in the moment.

He moved her legs up from around his waist, folding her, holding them in the crooks of elbows resting his weight on his palms and thrusting forward. He groaned deeply when he felt himself bottom out inside her. She screamed his name, as he shuddered from the physical sensation of it. Her gasp if his name reminded him what she had done to him that morning with her words, and he wanted to return the feeling to her.

His hips were pounding her now, alternating a rhythm designed to make her come for him, but only when he was ready. Two deep, pressing to the bottom of her and then one short, rotating his hips and rubbing that spot inside her that made her eyes go back in her head and toss her head around begging him to stop, to never stop, to do it again and again!

For just a moment he let himself savor this feeling. This he was used to, this was familiar ground. A woman beneath him, begging for his touch and his kiss. He knew what to do with that! But, right behind that came the realization that he was buried inside not "a woman" but **the woman** he wanted to be his. **MINE!** He thought savagely breaking his two and one rhythm and just fucking her as fast and deep as he could, her moaning a non- stop litany that accompanied the sound of their flesh smacking together.

In her mind he saw the image of himself in her mind, ignite and burn, and just as the image became too bright enough to blind him he felt her peak around him, squeezing him, and he tumbled after her.

He buried his face in her neck and bit down as she came around him, as he filled her over and over with his own release. A few minutes later, he slipped from her limp body, kissing her softly and started to pull from her mind as well. Just as he was about to open his eyes he heard a whisper from her mind.

**_I told ya, you fucking fanger I would eat you up._**

It echoed as if far away and he stopped and looked around her mind for the doors, but they were not in sight.

Here in this world Sookie pulled him close to her and kissed his cheek softly. He knew they had to get up and get moving if they were going to make their flight, but he let her drift off in his arms again, just for a few minutes, he thought.

Eric watched her sleep and realized that he did know one thing for certain. He knew that he wouldn't give her up, no matter who or what he had to fight to keep her. He would figure this out, and help her get through it. She had after all asked him to teach her how to survive. He had to admit that he had not been fully cognizant of what that meant at the time, but he was starting to get an idea now what that request had truly meant. This woman in his arms was more complicated than he had dreamed, and he owed her.

It was more than the owing though. It might have started with Godric, but now that she had surrendered to him, and he had seen the mystery that was her mind he couldn't let it go. There wasn't much he hadn't seen in a thousand years, much that actually interested him, at all.

She did. This did. He was in, and that wouldn't change no matter what was behind the other five doors. He was in, he was hers, and fuck it all, she would be his!

"Sookie," he whispered, kissing the top of her head, trying to wake her gently. "We need to get moving soon."

Back on that precipice between waking and dreaming she answered him.

"We're already moving, Eric. Don't you feel it?"

Gods, help him, he did. It even felt like they were picking up speed.

"I got you, Sookie," he soothed her. "Never worry, I got you."


	6. How?

A/N- Citrus grove ahead, but in addition to being fun all by itself, it is plot relevant goodness, cross my heart! Thank you for the reviews, please keep them coming! It makes me smile to you are out there, reading this.

Chapter 6 -How?

Time flew once Sookie got up for the day. It had been hard to leave his arms, harder than she had ever thought anything could be. She thought she would have time to process everything that had happened in the shower, but then he had joined her there. It had been slightly odd and uncomfortable at first and then everything slipped into place. He reached for the shampoo and then proceeded to wash her hair. The feeling was sensational.

"If you ever tank as a bar owner and all around smokin' vamp playboy, you've got a definite future as shampoo boy at some high end salon." Her tone was dreamy as she let him move her head this way and that as his fingers worked the tension from her scalp. He made that rumbling sound deep in chest that meant any one of a dozen things, "I am confused, amused, horny, hungry, bored, angry, etc." It really was a multi-purpose growl, a Swiss Army response. Rather than seek to discern its meaning she let her thoughts drift away, and just for a minute, she thought, _we've done this before._

_Done what?_ she asked herself.

_We have showered with Eric before. We knew he would be good at this_.

_Oh, yes we did_, another voice chimed in. _We've been in so many showers, with so many Eric's, so many times. It's always like mysticism and religion when he touches us._

"Hmmm," Sookie moaned as he rinsed her hair, gently moving her under the shower head and titling her head back to keep the soap out of her eyes. It did seem familiar, comfortable, once she had gotten past the initial decision to move over and let him in with her.

She felt him soap his hands with shower gel and start to lather her body. She leaned in allowing him to turn her and as she focused only on his touch, his hands on her skin she lost track of the rest of the world entirely. She lived in the span of his hand on her skin. Under his touch, her skin tingled and lived, and as it moved on the abandoned skin withered and died, yielding its life to where his touch moved forward.

_This is new_, she thought her eyes closed following his hand on her skin with her other senses.

_No, it's always like this, it's always mysticism and religion._

_Does he know?_

_Show him…_

Eric had hypnotized himself, feeling his hands gliding along her skin. It soothed him, for some reason he couldn't name but accepted. His concerns about doors and voices slipped away as he worshipped her with his hands. He felt her glow before he saw it. The spark under his hand and then he was feeling what she was feeling.

Awe. That was what first came to mind. A sense of wonder at his touch. A sense of familiarity and comfort at what he was doing. Now that it had come through from her he realized he had been feeling it, too. That he knew exactly how to shampoo her hair. That he knew exactly how to touch her when he soaped her beautiful skin. That he had done this many, many times already.

But this was the first shower they had ever taken together.

_Mysticism…and…religion_…echoed in his mind. She had said that to him…once….on a beach, the ocean waves crashing on the shore behind them. She had been crying…

_To me, you are mysticism and religion_.

The images came in waves of showers upon showers, kisses upon kisses, they clung to each other instinctively in this moment and then let go of everything else floating in the memories that surrounded them both.

Together they saw themselves caressing and caring for each other, making love, he holding her against the shower wall while he made her come for him over and over. She on her knees pleasuring him with her mouth, and looking up to him lovingly as the licked and sucked him to release. He on his knees at her feet, his tongue between her thighs, feasting on her arousal.

There was nothing they denied each other, over and over, a thousand showers, a million kisses. Turning away from the barrage of images and into each other for support to stand, to survive the onslaught of emotion. It was instinctive that their lips they became locked. Another point of contact, another steadying hold.

Behind their eye lids they saw themselves pull back a shower curtain and face an open wooded area where snow was falling. They knew that they were going to make love in that bed, and feel the snow on their skin, but they were not there now, they were here in _this_ shower…in _this_ time. But there were there, too. Always there, always here, always together. They had been, they would were, they would be. Always.

Her touch on his skin felt like she was burning him and after the torrent of passion and love they had just felt passing through them they could do nothing but collapse into each other.

Fuck the plane reservations, fuck the world, there was just this, just _them_ together, over and over, until all time folded in on itself.

Sookie was not really processing anything but the need to absorb him into her through every sense she had, and perhaps to even invent a few just to get that much _more_. She reached out for him.

Eric was much more concise in his thoughts and his actions. He had to be in her _now_. Lifting her and positioning her with her back against the shower wall he pushed into her and grunted at the sensation that overloaded his already stretched senses. The desire and need of thousands of Eric's invading his mind and body, all focused on joining with this woman. All to be one with her forever.

Eric lost his mind as he moved in her. He lost all sense of who he was, and what it meant to be Eric Northman. He was a need, and that need was to be as close to her as he could get.

Sookie fared no better, blown off the outer rims of her own orbit by the love she felt from each Sookie she saw. It was so strong, so powerful that she trusted this man over and over with everything she was, and he held her, and loved her in return.

She could die right here, at peace with the one thing that had always haunted her. Someone had _known_ her, and they had _loved_ her, all of her! They had _accepted_ her, and they loved her. Completely, always and forever. Eric had always loved her. Right then she knew there was nothing she would not do for this man, nothing she would hold back and for the first time ever she flew on wings of pure joy, and her body gave itself over to him completely.

What Sookie couldn't manage in words, she showed him in images. She showed him her heart, and how much she loved him and then she let him feel it.

If you had asked Eric to describe it, if he had been capable of speech, he might have said it was like every muscle relaxing at once, and yet tensing at the same time. That it was like standing in a storm and begging the lightening to crash into you until it does and takes your breath away. It was like drowning, only to learn you can breathe underwater. It was that first mouth of blood after you are turned, nothing is as good and nothing is ever enough. It was coming home after a trip away and finding all your things right where you left them. It was starting out on a new adventure and feeling the excitement of the unknown netted by the security of knowing you can go home if things get to scary.

All of that would have barely touched it.

And then it got better.

While Eric pressed her against the wall, and fucked her deeper and harder than she had ever been fucked before, pushing her into a mindless haze of need broke she broke his rough demanding possessive kiss and buried her mouth on his neck. She moaned and ripped open his flesh, drinking deeply. Her groans of pleasure at the taste of him, the sensation of him entering her, feeling the Bond increase and expand, on top of the mental connection and the physical connection pushed him further into his own instinct and need.

He bit down on her flesh then, drinking of her deeply. He was in her in every possible way and she was still too fucking far away from him.

When he joined her in drinking the bond again increased and expanded, the ancient magic tying tendrils around them and pulling them closer. If he could have bared to let her go he would have tied the knots himself to make it happen faster.

Her felt her orgasm and it brought the needs of his body to the forefront over the needs of his soul and he let go as well. Finding one last way to join with her that was uniquely male, and totally his.

The sense of possession and love he had felt in the vision earlier over and over underscored what he had already known. It was only ever her, and only ever him, and that this was right. Totally fucking right and that he would never let it go. That she was his, she had always been his. The CIB had lied when she said "**_She's been mine forever, and she will always be MINE! _**Now he knew for sure.

He wanted to taste her now, as he had seen himself do in the vision. He carried her to the bed, never stopping the kiss along the way and after laying her down buried his face between her thighs, tasting both of them as he licked her folds. He was so hard again, and this combination of the two of them made him twitch as the pre-cum on the tip of him leaked out, offering the tiniest of relief for the pressure he felt to take her again.

She came in his mouth, screaming his name, ripping the sheets off the bed in her fisted hands. Before she even drew breath he was in her again. Having pulled her up to face him, splaying her legs over his as she done when she took him the first time his hands on her hips grinding her down, riding out the end of her orgasm while he pushed deeper. It was so confusing he would never hurt her, ever, and yet he wanted to fuck her so hard he would split her apart, he pushed any need for reason away and just keep thrusting into her as hard as could.

She was grunting now, as mindless and needy as he was. Her arms locked around his neck, her face next to his so that every sound she made was right beside his ear. Then she bit him again, and somehow as her teeth ripped his skin again, her internal muscles locked down so tight it felt like she pulled his soul out of him, and made him come for her again. He was helpless to do anything other than bite her back, to taste her again.

The Bond grew again, and expanded and he could feel her, nestling into his heart, and brushing his soul that she had just taken ownership of. He didn't care. He still wasn't close enough.

"More!" it was the first time he had spoken in a while and his voice was rough and so filled with need it sounded almost angry.

Sookie didn't hesitate. She moved from his arms to push him back on the bed. She took his cock in her mouth sucking and tonguing the head, massaging the shaft that did not easily fit into her mouth. Her other hand rubbed his leg, cupped his balls, touched him in any way that she could to satisfy their need to be closer. She needed to wring those sounds of out him, every time she touched him. His moans of sounds of pleasure fell on her like the blessed drops of rain after an age of drought. She would give him anything, everything, now, forever. Holding her breath, she leaned down and deep throated him bobbing her head several times before releasing him, and resumed working her hand on him, totally gratified by his pure male animalistic response at her efforts.

She wanted him to come inside her again, she was burning for him.

She slipped up his body and slid him in, sighing as he come home, her body open and slick from the fluid of their previous releases. He needed to be here in her always, always, forever. She was moving now, wanting to push him over the edge, wanting to jump behind him, knowing for certain and forever that he would always catch her, hold her.

He rolled her over, never missing a thrust and kissed her. She opened up her mouth to him and found that when she relaxed into his kiss that her hips relaxed more and allowed in deeper.

Somewhere she knew that it was always like that for them. If she could trust him and let him in he could get so deep in. Deep in mind, in her heart, deep in body.

God, how she loved this man! She growled as she locked her legs over his hips, demanding he take her harder still.

She feel him getting close, and wordlessly pulled his head to her neck, tangling her fingers in his hair. She wanted him to bite her again. She wanted to bite him, too but wouldn't without an invitation. This would be the third time, and this bond would be permanent. She knew now she wanted that more than anything else in the world, but she didn't know that he wanted it.

He grabbed her head and pulled her into his neck, grunting, pressing her to the spot she had already decimated twice. She kissed him, sucking his neck in a hot open mouth kiss, and he sped up between her thighs reaching for his release spurred on by her kisses.

"Please," it was so quiet she almost missed it, a ragged bloody whisper sent back from sanity's edge. There was no doubt then as she ripped open his neck and feasted. He slammed into once, twice, three more times and then as he emptied himself into her again his fangs pierced her neck and the bond was sealed.

As they drink they felt their worlds expand and shrink at the same time. She could feel him now, his total elation at joining with her, at what they had shared, at knowing she was truly his now, forever. She felt his love, and it was just as warm and buoyant as she could have dreamed it would be. She felt his desire and though she couldn't possibly make love to him again, no matter how much she wanted to, she wanted to twice as much as she had just moments ago. She also felt his acceptance that he was hers, and the simple pleasure of it, and slight surprise that the thought did indeed pleasure him.

Eric felt her total surrender to him, and the warmth her devotion and love for him. He felt her desire for him and her regret that she could not, despite having so much of his blood, make love to him again right now. His desire increased when he felt hers. He felt her pleasure at tasting him, and knew that again it matched his own. He felt her _trust_ and rolled himself in it like a blanket.

"I won't betray you! Ever!" he swore to her, holding her close as he licked the wounds closed on her neck.

"I know," she said holding onto his shoulders and pressing her face deeper into his neck. They stayed like that for a minute, for an hour who knew, and then she giggled.

"What?" he asked. He was not willing to let her go.

"I think we missed our plane." He chuckled softly.

"There is a plane every hour of every day and we can go any time. It is not every day, or any day that I have an experience like THIS."

"No, it isn't." She nestled further in. "So, we have time for me to take a nap, ya think?"

"We have all the time in the world, Beloved." He kissed her softly on the cheek and laid her back on the bed.

"Will you come to bed with me, Eric? I want you to hold me. I want to be close to you."

Since he wanted exactly those things himself he simply said yes. She was part of him now and caring for her was the same as caring for himself. He needed what she needed. Luckily, she needed him.

Despite his supernatural stamina the experience with Sookie had been physically and emotionally overwhelming for him as well. When he pulled her close he, too felt tired and thought that down time would be beneficial for him as well.

He could process later.

He held her close, nuzzled her neck, and took a deep breath. Her scent relaxed him and he left his mind drift away.


	7. Who?

A/N- Your comments make me laugh and feel happier than I have in a long time. Thank you all so much for taking the time to visit here and share them with me!

Chapter 7-

Eric was the first to rise, sliding out of down time and smiling at the woman passed out in his arms. A feeling of pride and satisfaction filled him, purely male, purely ego. Even after a thousand years nothing made him feel as smug as fucking a woman into unconsciousness. Smiling, he pulled on his jeans and headed to the kitchen. Looking in the fridge he found that his day man had dropped off supplies like he had asked, and nodded when he found a filet mignon and makings for a garden salad, as well as baked potato in the kitchen.

As he started to prepare these things his level of self-satisfaction increased to almost intolerable levels as he congratulated himself for being smart enough to get a cookbook. He reached for the book finally able to admit to himself that he had gotten it in secret hopes of finding himself in this very position.

When he gotten the bill from the Hotel Camilla covering her stay, there had been an itemized listing of room service. Since she had been the only human staying there it wasn't hard to figure that she had been the one who ordered the steak, salad and potato.

The next time he was in the bookstore he found himself in front of the cookbook section and had looked for one that would tell him how to prepare these favored dishes that had cost him $75.00 plus a healthy tip. Not that the money mattered, it was the principal of the thing. That was why Bill's stunt in ordering a blood he never planned to drink had annoyed him. Money was meant to create joy and to provide security, not to be squandered.

Carefully following the directions in the book he prepared her meal, feeling a little guilty that she had not eaten in so long, but they had been busy and he planned to make up for it now.

Feeling her wake up and reach out to him via their new bond, he put the steak on low and went back to the bedroom at vamp speed. He stopped in the doorway, leaning against the frame, striking a pose that he hoped she would appreciate. He had some idea how devastating he was, with his hair tussled, his jeans low on his hips, the button undone, and his shirt and shoes missing in action. Women all over the world had melted for him at less. He gave her a moment to soak in his beauty before looking directly at her.

Sookie, was sitting in the middle of the bed, with the worst case of sex hair possibly documented in human history. She was wiping her eyes, pushing her hair back and making some kind of smacking sound with her mouth that seemed to indicate a hefty case of morning breath. The sheet was pooled in her lap and her breasts was exposed as a matter of happenstance, like she had just emerged from some Botticelli masterpiece.

He was captivated, and amused, and oddly happy. She totally missed his preening and he loved it.

When she felt his happiness bloom in their bond she looked right at him and her face lit up with a smile that rivaled his memory of the sun. Her arms opened to him, calling him to her. He tackled her and then immediately started to cover her with kisses.

Not the 'I wanna jump your bones kind' but rather than 'I adore you, I love you,' kind. She giggled and wriggled around while he continued to kiss her all over.

"I smell food!" she moaned, pushing at him, trying to get up from the bed. "I'm starvin'!" She went to rise from the bed and then realization hit her. She leaned back and looked him in the eye smile starting to bloom on her face "Are you cooking, Eric?" She asked him softly, in awe of the idea.

"Shh, don't spoil it," was all he said. She smiled, sighing. She had worried when she woke up if he would still be radiating love for her, like he had been earlier when they were lost in making their blood bond. Part of her had even been afraid that he would have "come to his senses" and be angry with her for taking advantage of him while he was caught up in the frenzy of making love to her. But no, as she felt along this strange new bond, she felt, comfort, love, warmth, openness and joy. He really wanted to impress her with whatever he was doing in the kitchen. "We made a deal, remember? You would feed and care for me and I for you? This is just me keeping my end up." She turned her head slightly to the side, shooting him an evil smirk.

"To easy, Northman, too damned easy." He smiled back, loving her playfulness and all the thing she might have said in response to that easy double entendre. "Do I have time for a shower?"

"You do if you don't take me with you," he kissed her hand, wanting her to invite him and wanting her to let him go finish preparing her dinner.

"Ungh! Need food! Get in that kitchen, man!" She responded playfully, pushing at his chest with her open palm. He was gone, again at vampire speed before she finished her sentence. She could feel his amusement through the bond and stepped into the shower.

While she bathed and brushed her teeth she thought about what had happened earlier. All those images and all those voices. All that love. How could they have done things they had never done before? She pushed it back, wanting to talk to him about it. Maybe he had some ideas.

She looked in her bag for a nightgown. It was white cotton with pink lace trim, full length, sleeveless and comfortable. Not sexy but practical, familiar. So much had changed in such a short time she needed that familiarity. She had picked this, anticipating that.

When she followed her nose out the open door and toward the heavenly scent that permeated the house she found Eric in the kitchen. It was her turn to pause in the doorway, but she wasn't posing for him, she was watching him. He was trying to toss the salad, keep the steak from being over cooked, and trying to figure out if her potato was actually done baking. He burned his hand on the grill, and though it healed quickly he looked very human when he hissed and swore and then looked at the meat like it was public enemy number one. When he tossed the salad he gave it a little too much vamp power and tossed a good portion of it out of the bowl and onto the floor. Another expletive escaped his lips, and then he stopped in front of the potato. Giving it the evil eye, as if to scare it into confessing its state of readiness to be eaten.

The effect he had wanted earlier when he paused in the doorway like a model on the runway he got now. She was blown away, and sighed like a school girl seeing Elvis for the first time in his heyday.

He felt her complete adoration as she melted for him and all his consternation at the inscrutable potato faded away.

"If I weren't starving slam to death, Northman, I would demand you yield to me right here, right now." Her tone betrayed her regret that reasonableness reign in the face of desire, but she still managed to induce that Swiss Army sound from him. He turned to look at her, desire smoldering in his eyes. "Go sit in front of the fire woman, I will join you momentarily."

Giving him one last longing look, wishing she had one of those tall white chef hats to sit on his head while he waged The War of the Spud, she retreated to the living room, and sat on the floor in front of the fire, her back to the table that was in front of the sofa. The colors in the room were neutral, soothing and the furniture was big and overstuffed suede's and leathers. She could have sank into that sofa disappeared completely.

She was staring into the fire lost in thought when he brought her dinner in on tray with a bottle of water and a red rose. He sat it down on the table with much pomp and circumstance and then folded himself on the floor beside her. She reached eagerly for her knife and fork but he beat her to it and started cutting the meat himself. "Our deal was that I would feed and care for you. Tonight, I want to feed you, as you have done for me." She pushed back her resistance to letting him care for her and just accepted it. She moaned in pleasure when he put the first bite in her mouth, chewing rapidly, straining for another bite. Once she had taken the edge off her hunger and could focus on other thoughts it hit her.

I had this meal in Dallas! How did he know that? Oh, right, he paid the bill. He remembered what she had for dinner? First, she was elated, and then she felt guilty. She had ordered that meal, the most expensive thing that sounded good to her as a punishment for taking Bill away to the bar. Eric had stopped and was holding the fork in mid-air staring at her.

"Sookie," he said softly setting the fork down on the coffee table. "I have never bonded before, so, this is all as new to me as it is to you. I thought I knew what to expect, and I expected what I described to you when we talked about this yesterday." Yesterday? How could so little time have passed? Shoving that aside, "I don't want to screw this up. I want to understand why in space of ten seconds I felt you drop from ecstatic to guilty and why the meal that had delighted you seconds ago now is less appealing. Did I do something wrong? Is it not prepared correctly?" Again, he felt guilt sweep over her.

"This blood bond thingy is going to get us in trouble if we aren't careful." She was looking at him, he could see worry and concern in her gaze. She reached for his hand, threading her fingers together with his and pulled him into her memory. She showed him her memory of Dallas and let him see that she had ordered it be spiteful, and that is why she felt so bad.

"And before when you were so happy?" he asked slipping out of her mind and bringing her hand to his lips.

"You remembered! I couldn't believe you remembered, and then I realized what you remembered was me being an asshole. It took some shine off." She ducked her head, blushing slightly. He chuckled.

"Did you enjoy that meal, Sookie? He asked as he feathered kisses on her hand and wrist. She blushed even more.

"Yes, very much. It tasted wonderful, but I figured you would be so mad and that just made it even better…at the time," she finished still sounding guilty and regretful of her action.

"Then think nothing of it. First, it fed you when you needed nourishment, and it pleasured you before you would let me do that for you. It is a small thing, and it gladdens me that I could do this for you." He stopped kissing her hand and now pulled it closer to his chest. "Let me finish feeding you now, before it gets cold." Rather than wait for her consent he picked up the fork and knife and before she knew it all her dinner was gone.

Reaching for her, he pulled her to sit with him on the floor between his legs, while he leaned back on the sofa. She let her back rest on him front of the fire. He ran his fingers through her hair, gently, and made a contented sound that relaxed further. Before long, she turned to the right, putting her legs over his and looking up at his face while leaning into him. His arm obligingly moved behind her to hold her while she nestled into his chest.

"Eric, what happened to us to today? What was all that in the shower?" He didn't answer right away. He stared into the fire and rested his head against the top of hers.

"I can't say for sure, but, I think, that what we saw was us."

"Us?" She felt him nod.

"I read once that there is some heated debate amount some theoretical physicists that parallel universes were around us all the time that in fact, and that we created them. When we made a choice, when we took a turn, when we do one thing, there is an equal and opposite choice that must come into existence and thus an alternate reality is born." He stopped there still staring into the flames, lost in his own mind. Sookie tried to get her head around what he was saying.

"That would mean, Eric, that is most, if not all of those places, we wind up together, like this?"

"What do you mean, Sookie?"

"Oh, Eric, I felt her, me. All her love, their love for you passing through me. She loved you so much, him so much…oh this is making my head hurt!"

"Try, Sookie, I want to understand what you mean."

"All the Sookie's love all the pretty Eric's. Always. Every time they meet. Forever. It never changes. Couldn't you feel it? Didn't' all the pretty Eric's love all the Sookie's, too?" her need to be reassured that it wasn't one sided was killing him. She gasped at the pain she felt coming from him, she raised her head and looked into his eyes "What, Eric, what's wrong?"

"'All the Pretty Eric's' as you called them, Sookie. What they felt was so raw and intense that I thought it was going to end me! Every Eric, in every image, loved his Sookie beyond anything that words could ever say. He lived for her and he died for her and it never started it never ended it just was. A universal constant. Feeling that, seeing that pushed me beyond any place I have ever been. I know that I am only what I should be when I have you at my side." He hesitated a moment trying to figure out how to say what else he had sensed.

"All of those Eric's and Sookie's had come together in different ways, not the same way we did here, but I don't think that is the important part. I think the important part is that we are together." Her arms slid around him holding him tightly.

"It's definitely what is most important to me."

"Why, Sookie? I need the words, please." He buried his face in her hair ashamed of his raggedy need that he had no choice but to show her.

"Because, this Sookie loves her Pretty Eric more than the rest all put together." She settled further into him, feeling her body relax, her full belly making her sleepy again, too. "I would give him anything, everything. I would burn this fucking universe to the ground if he asked me," she declared fiercely in his chest, holding his neck tightly. In their bond he felt the truth of her words, and thinking of what he now knew of the CIB he believed she would and could do that.

He hugged her closer. This revelation elated him. The Sookie she had either been or that he had thought her to be would been indignant and furious at his joy for such a declaration of love, of its destructive power. Had he really been so wrong about her or had she just changed that much?

Eric was elated because this kind of passion she claimed, _this_ he understood. In a sea of things that left him feeling ignorant and that shook his confidence, this kind of familiar feeling was exactly what he needed. It also gave him some insight that he wanted to test out.

Perhaps, just perhaps the CIB was not what he had thought before. Perhaps, now that they had bonded the CIB would respond differently to him? Perhaps, she would protect him now, too? Because that level if fierceness and passion sounded a lot like _her_ offering to burn the universe to a cinder for him.

Shifting her soft form slightly he could feel that Sookie was dozing in his arms, and he decided to check out the doors and see if they were there. Maybe he could get some more information. Holding her close, he called her, _Sookie_ and felt that moment where her mind opened to him. Still not that different than when she opened her body to him. He sighed in pleasure, shivering.

When he found his bearings, he looked around and he was in the room with the doors again. They were all closed, the lettering still present, not revealing any more information than they had before. He thought of calling out, and then thought better of it. As before he saw the book shelves between the doors and decided to take a closer look at the volumes on the shelves.

When he got closer he saw titles, some he recognized some he didn't. _The Stand, The Dead Zone, IT, The Gunslinger-Dark Tower, The Commons, The Book of Common Dread, Bearing an Hourglass, American Gods, The Sandman._ There were also movies mixed in with them. _The Fountain, Out of Africa, The Whole Wide World, The Abyss, and The Big Lebowski._ There was music_, Pink Floyd, Bare Naked Ladies, Blue October_, and so many more. He was reaching out to pick up _The Commons_ when suddenly he heard a high pitched squeal of what could only be called joy behind him, and felt a corresponding surge as well in the bond he now shared with Sookie. Not as strong as it had been earlier, but there still. He turned quickly only to see a small bundle of pink Tasmanian devil attack his leg, holding on for dear life.

He looked around and saw that the door labeled **_The Child_** was standing open. He looked back down at his leg and saw a tiny blond girl barefoot in a pink nightgown, holding a stuffed turtle and staring up at him with giant brown eyes filled with adoration. She still had her baby teeth he noted as he looked at her smile, though a few were missing.

"Hewo, Ewic!" She chirped, still smiling up at him like he had hung the moon itself.


	8. What's Underneath?

A/N- Thank you all for taking the time to read. I hope this finds you all well today and doing something that makes you as happy as writing this story has made me! Blessings to you all.

Chapter 8- What's Underneath?

He looked around and saw that the door labeled **_The Child_** was standing open. He looked back down at his leg and saw a tiny blond girl, barefoot in a pink nightgown, holding a stuffed turtle and staring up at him with giant brown eyes filled with adoration. She still had her baby teeth he noted as he looked at her smile, though a few were missing.

"Hewo, Ewic!" She chirped, still smiling up at him like he had hung the moon itself.

The eyes told him who she was, the smile only confirmed it. 'Tea Cup' Sookie. He smiled at her, he couldn't help it, she was adorable, and her smile was infectious. Considering all the ways to get her off his leg in a dignified manner, she trumped him as usual, by stepping back, brushing the bangs from her eyes, placing a hand on her hip and using the other to hold up her stuffed turtle by one leg. "Ewic, dis is Missa Jones, my turtle. Missa Jones, dis is my Ewic!" She held the turtle closer as though he might be near sited and needed to be closer to truly see the six feet plus of ancient vampire standing before him. _When in Rome_, Eric thought.

He stepped back and bowed at his waist in his courtliest manner and his most auspicious tones, "Mr. Jones, a pleasure to meet you."

There was a tiny pink volcanic like eruption of giggles from Tea Cup Sookie. She then proceeded to demonstrate a vamp like speed by taking advantage of his courtly bow to launch herself at his neck and hold on for dear life. His arms came around her automatically and he found himself locked in her embrace as he returned to his normal height.

She hugged him tight, making an "ugh" sound when she let go at the end and then pulled her face back to look him in the eye. She scrunched her face up at him and then planted a very big, very wet, very sincere kiss on his stubbly cheek. "Scratchy!" she said rubbing her lips when she pulled back to look him in the eye again. Mr. Jones' leg was still clutched in her tiny hand, causing the turtle to rest against Eric's chest when she sat back in his arms and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Sorry, I guess it is, scratchy." He closed his eyes, concentrating for a minute and then ran a hand down his face. Smooth as if he had just shaved. "Better?" He leaned his cheek toward her for another kiss, wiggling his eyebrows at her. Again, she giggled at him.

"Pixie was wight, Ewic likes Sookie kisses!" Again he felt the bond between he and Sookie give a tug. Still not as strong as it had been when he was out _there_, but in _here_ it seemed to be tied to the tiny bundle in his arms.

"Who is Pixie?" Eric asked. Tea Cup Sookie nodded at the door behind him that said **_The Pixie_****, **but didn't offer anything else that could be of use. She began to wiggle then, indicating that she wanted to get down. Gently, he set her on a bare feet in front of him and waited. A thought suddenly hitting him.

"Sookie, how old are you?" She smiled again, shyly, shifting on her feet as if embarrassed. Then she took Mr. Jones and placed him in a death hold between her knees so that both her hands were free.

Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, head cocked to the side she said "Dis many", and held up six of her tiny fingers. Even at six she managed to slay him, he was utterly charmed, and once again, utterly hers. If he didn't feel so pathetically warm all over his insides he would be looking for a stake to fall on and end this whole thing. He sighed dramatically, unconsciously imitating Sookie. "Come on, Ewic!" she demanded grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the open door that was labeled **_The Child_**. Eric hesitated a minute, it had not occurred to him that he could go _into_ these places, these rooms. "Come on!" She insisted doing her best to drag him to the door. He let her pull him in that direction. "I gotta show you somefin', Ewic!"

When Eric stepped through her door he was expecting something dramatic to happen. The CIB to jump out and grab him, thunder, lightning, yodeling, _something_. All that happened though was that he found himself in a little girl's room. It was the room that he recognized from her house. The pink room with wallpaper flowers. It was smaller, with the bed not full sized, but Tea Cup sized. He let her pull him to her desk, seeing paper spread out there and a box of crayons mostly empty as all its occupants were strewn out over her workspace.

She picked up a piece of paper from her desk and held it up to him, tilting her head all the way back to see him above her. It was quite a haul since the top of her head barely reached above his kneecap. He took the paper from her and she reached for his hand, again, far above her head. "'S'not done, yet. I couldn't find the right blue." He looked at the paper and saw two figures, holding hands. One of them seemed to be Sookie, with her long blond hair and she was standing beside what he thought must be him. Again the blond hair, and were those fangs she drew there? Yes, they were! That little minx! Pressing back a smile he asked her why she needed such a special blue. She tugged his hand, and he let her pull him down and cup his face with her tiny hands. " I gotta make ya eyes just right, Ewic, it's 'portant!"

_Oh, this is fucking killing me,_ he thought_. I have fought wars, killed thousands with my bare hands, and swam in and drank oceans of their blood and I am ready to sit down here and beg her to brush my fucking hair._ He hung his head, partly in shame, partly to hide is big dumb besotted grin, and because he didn't know what else to do with the tiny Tea Cup Sookie in front him. He wanted to squeeze her, tight. He wanted to keep her safe. He wanted to eat her up, figuratively, literally. Eric, already kneeling, folded his legs and sat down on her floor.

"What do you want from me, Sookie?" he asked, feeling all will of his own just drain away as he faced her. He didn't expect answer.

"Take off de mask, Ewic." Completely trusting she flopped into his lap, leaned back and reached up her tiny fingers. He expected to feel her caress on his now smooth jaw but instead felt her tiny fingers sliding under the edge of a mask he didn't even remember was there most of the time anymore. Suddenly he was afraid. Tea Cup Sookie felt that and stopped, frowning at him. "Don' be 'fwaid, Ewic. I gonna saves you! You haffa lemme see!"

"No!" he brushed her hand away, denying her plaintive request to strip him bear in her mind. She was a child! Who knows what it would do to her to see him, the real him under that mask? He couldn't bear it of Tea Cup Sookie were scared of him. "No, I don't want to scare you!"

"You won't, Ewic." She sounded so sure.

"Why do you want to see this, Sookie?" Looking him dead in the eyes with the passion of the CIB, minus the heaping dose of crazy that came with her, and the adoration of the real Sookie who was asleep in his arms in another world she answered him.

"So I can kiss it, 'n make it better!" Her words stunned him. When she reached up again though, he still pulled away from her touch.

His denial of her request evoked a sight that was at once familiar and heart breaking. Tiny Tea Cup Sookie, angry at him. It was like a miniature version of what he had faced in his bar when she confronted him about her friend in his basement. She stood, crossed her arms, still clutching that turtle for dear life, and frowned at him. Then she stamped her tiny bare foot. He knew his laughter would only make her madder but he could not contain his smile at the tiny vision of fury before him. Best to take control here and redirect things if he could.

"What do you do here, other than draw, Sookie?" He stood, glancing around seeing shelves of children's' stories and pictures all over her walls that she had drawn. Was that Bill over there in a drawing next to the window? The window? He moved closer and looked through her window to the outside. It was a sunny and beautiful day right outside. For a moment he forgot that he really was not there, and susceptible to that sunlight. Then he got a grip on himself.

"I sweep, I sing, I dance, I hide." She counted them off on her fingers one at a time until she run out of things to add, and the remembered one more. "Oh, and I talk to Missa Jones." She held him up again, so that either he could see Eric or Eric could see him, he wasn't sure which. "Missa Jones knows de best secwets!" Dismissing her commentary about a stuffed turtle he focused on her previous statement.

"Hide? From who?" He was looking out the window at all that safe sunlight and trying to suppress his longing to go to it so he wasn't looking at her, but he felt the bond jump with fear. He turned to her, alarmed at her response. Her lip was out, and big tears were pooling in her eyes. "Sookie, what's wrong? Who do you hide from?" He dropped to knees again beside her and took her in his arms. She snuffled in his shoulder, and whispered in his ear.

"De Bad Man."

"Who? What's his name?" Eric pressed her, wanting to kill whoever had made her feel this fear. No one would ever threaten her again!

"Dunno," she snuffled again. "Dey hide me fwom him, and won't tell me nuffin' 'cept to be careful, hide, and stay inside." She hesitated then, "If dey knowed I had come out to see you they would be mad at me! But I don't care!" She stamped her tiny foot again. "When I felted you here, I had to see you! I wanted to show you my picture." She held him tighter, "I had to tell you that I would get the blue wight, Ewic."

"Of course you did," he soothed her, picking her up and sitting on the side of her bed. He placed her on his lap and she curled into his chest, sighing, and he could feel the tendrils of her contentment in his embrace. She looked up at him again and ran her fingers along his jaw again.

"You haffa show me, Ewic." He didn't want to know what she meant, but of course he did. He shook his head, angling away from her touch again. "I won't make you, Ewic, but soon we will need you to show us." He shook his head again. She gave a soft sigh and clung to him tighter for a few minutes. "Ewic, you need to go 'fore I go t' sweep."

"Why?"

"'Cause," she yawned and snuggled deeper into him, "when I sweep, someone else wakes up." Oh**,** he thought, _OH!_ Softly, he kissed her forehead and then began to disengage from Sookie's mind.

When he opened his eyes he was momentarily confused by what he saw. She was still in his arms, only she was no longer Tea Cup size. He was holding her the same way out here that he had been. He hugged her tighter making her sigh and snuggle closer as the little one had just done.

So, another door had opened for him, and rather some psychotic demon that wore his lovers face, he found her, as a child. Well, he thought back, she looked like a child, and spoke like a child, but her comments and the things she said had been anything but those of a child.

And let's not forget, he thought, she loves me, completely and totally. My _Ewic_, she called him. He smiled, and then his smile slowly faded as he thought about what she wanted to do. She wanted to get his mask off, to see underneath. Wait! The CIB had wanted that, too! To get his mask off and see if he were "bad enough for her". What the hell? The CIB wanted to judge him, The Child wanted to heal him, what would The Pixie want? Or Bill or Adele for that matter, and the million dollar question? What was behind the door labeled Eric?

Sookie wanted him to teach her how to survive. Which meant that he had to remember how he had done it from the beginning. Following those thoughts back, he realized he had always believed that he had started with making masks when he was made Vampire. He saw now that was wrong. He had started making masks when he was still human.

What had been the first one? Ah, the mask his father had forced him to create with his expectations of a son who would follow in his footsteps, and marry. Eric had loved his father a great deal, but in his heart he knew his destiny was not to be king. There as something else out there for him, and he believed it would make itself known to him if he waited. His father had insisted though and they had had so many fights about his lack of wife and interest in the daily affairs of being king. Torn between his love for his father and mother and his need to follow his heart he made his first mask. The Mask of Acceptance.

On most days he wore it and made himself appear the dutiful son, while his mind schemed to figure out ways to delay his marriage, and duties that took him away from the tediousness of court his father held to judge the troubles of his people.

He had always regretted that he had let his mask slip the day his father died. That he had allowed his father to see that no matter how accepting he had appeared he was still rebelling against the idea that this was to be his life and how uninspiring he found it all.

His father had reacted as expected, with rage that what he found so fulfilling his son found unworthy and a fight ensued. Then Russell had ended all their fighting forever and Eric had had no choice but to be king. He made a new mask then, he had to. Kings did not Accept, Kings Led, and so The Mask of Leadership was made, and it replaced the Mask of Acceptance. Eric forced himself to be confident when he was clueless, and realized that if he could make his men believe that they would be victorious they would be. The power was in the inability to accept any other outcome than victory. If you could close out all other the thoughts the universe itself would bend around you and manifest your will.

In a thousand years, Eric had honed this to an art, and at his touch was a mask for all occasions. She wanted him to strip away all his masks, to show her his true face. To drop a thousand years of deception and show her what even he feared to see. _She asked too much! _He thought angrily. _Too much! _

Sookie shifted in his arms, feeling his emotions through the bond they now shared. They needed to talk about this. Their bonding had been a glorious experience that he wouldn't trade for anything, but they still had much to learn about each other. Much that needed to be understood so this bond did not become a danger to them.

He was a survivor and she wanted him to teach her how to be one, too. In his opinion this new connection was a huge vulnerability to that survival that they needed to master as soon as possible. The greatest weakness was more often than not the greatest strength as well.

He kissed her forehead and placed her on the couch, going to find his phone and set up new plane reservations for their flight to Sweden, he would also need more food for Sookie since they were staying another night here in Shreveport. Just as he put his hand on his phone he felt a stabbing pain from his bond with Pam and _Ain't We Got Fun?_ began to play.

"Pamela?" he answered, asking with just his tone what was causing her such distress that she could feel through their bond.

"You're supposed to be dead right now," relief in huge waves came to him now through their bond.

"How?" he and Pam had known each other long enough and intimately enough to infer a great deal, and do it accurately in just the few words they had spoken already. She was very upset and very relieved that he had answered.

"Your plan went down over the Atlantic. Exploded in mid-air, you were listed as being on board."

"Get me a list of passengers."

"Sending it to you now. Eric, I think you were the target." He checked his email, skimming the short list of passengers and agreed that he was the most likely target of all of them.

"I will give some thought as to who would have done this."

"I recommend you stay dead, until we can gather more information."

"Agreed."

"Where are you going?"

"Uppsala. I will be in touch. Be careful, Pam."

"You as well, my Master."

After hanging up he went to pack a few things of his and also gathered up what little Sookie had unpacked and put it back in her bag. They could get more things where they were going.

Gently, Eric woke her up and told her that they had to get moving. He told her what had happened to their plane, and that he was likely the target. The fierce look that came over her at the thought of him being in danger made him feel way better than he should have under the current circumstances. Pushing himself to focus he asked her to dress quickly.

When they exited the house it was just before 2AM. He took her immediately in his arms and flew south. After about ten minutes he touched down in the warehouse district of Shreveport, opening a door to one of them by putting a long string of numbers into the electronic keypad beside the door.

When the door went up a light came on automatically showing a number of covered cars parked inside. He moved swiftly to the back wall and grabbed a light tight travel coffin before heading toward one of the bigger covered lumps. When he jerked the cover off, she saw a new black Chevy Suburban. He moved to the back, and laid down the seats, putting the coffin in the truck. She couldn't tell for sure in this light but she thought that the car had tinted windows for privacy. No would be able to look in and see the coffin. Smart. Plus the car was big and roomy but not really ostentatious enough to attract unwanted attention. Smarter. She watched him open the travel coffin and take out several large stacks of cash. Smartest.

_This guy knows how to amscray_, she thought. She saw more money in the coffin before he closed it again and felt her respect go up another notch. She watched him walk to her, his movements focused and determined, and she could tell from how he was glancing around that he was on alert. She took her queue from him and made herself look around as well, listening with her telepathy and feeling for anyone or anything that might be around.

When he got to her, looking anxiously in her eyes, she smiled at him and shook her head, indicating that no one was around, there were no blank spaces either, which would have indicated vampires. He returned her smile and kissed her swiftly on the forehead before handing her the cash. "Decide where you want to stash this for easy access in the car as we travel." She wanted to ask more questions but he didn't seem open to discussion as he immediately started to guide her toward the passenger seat.

He stashed their bags in the back with the coffin and then climbed behind the wheel, driving out. After closing and resetting the door lock to the warehouse he drove them out of Shreveport, playing tag with the speed limit. She could feel his tension and knew he was fighting between wanting to get them away as quickly as possible, and balancing that against drawing unnecessary attention.

He drove north into the night, reaching over for her hand after the first few miles had passed. She took it and brought it to her lips for a minute, then rubbing her cheek with it. She smiled when she heard him make that Swiss Army sound again, and in the bond now she could tell it pleasure and contentment he felt at her touch. She let a small smile out in triumph of figuring out how to understand him a little more.

"I love you, too," she whispered to his hand, knowing he heard her, as they raced into the unknown of the night.


	9. Did You Fondle My CD's?

A/N- In this chapter I quote the lyrics of _She's My Ride Home_, **by Blue October** from the their stellar album **FOILED**. I take no credit, received no payment and intend no infringement, only pure adoration, and the hopes of making some new fans!

If you are not familiar with Blue October, I encourage to go to your instant gratification MP3 Download source immediately and check them out, or if you are lucky enough to have them performing near you GO SEE THEM!

Blessings to you all, thank you so much for your support and comments.

Chapter 9- Did You Fondle My CD's?

Just before dawn Eric stopped at a convenience store and filled up the car. They had been driving for almost three hours. As Shreveport fell behind them he had told her they were headed to his ranch in Montana called Uppsala. A thousand acres that ran right up to the Glacier National Park on the west side, fifty miles of wilderness to the east and south, and the Canadian border to the north. No one but Pam knew that he owned it.

They would take turns driving the thirty some hour road trip, him at night and her during the day. She was to stop only when truly necessary for rest and food. That would put them arriving in Kalispell, Montana in the middle of her second shift. There they would provision up for at least a two week stay on the ranch.

Eric Googled the address for the Wal-Mart in Kalispell, and programmed the GPS. She looked around for music as she prepared to take the driver's seat and found that there was an MP3 player integrated into the sounds system in the dash board. Before she could thumb through it Eric took it from her hand and smiled. After fiddling with it for a few minutes while also juggling his smartphone expertly back and forth, she felt satisfaction and smugness rolling over her in waves from the bond.

When he handed it back to her she saw why. He had created a playlist called Sookie and on it was all the Blue October albums, the Bare Naked Ladies Greatest Hits and Pink Floyd's Greatest as well. Her eyes lit up. They were still downloading via the wireless connection through his smartphone hotspot, but as long as the connection held they would continue to download as she traveled.

"How did you do that?" she asked leaning over to hug him. "How did you know?" He wanted to tell her but now truly was not the time. They were in the open and exposed and he wanted to be able to answer her questions and discuss what was happening between them with no interruptions or split focus as he worried for their safety. Through the bond she sensed his indecision and reasonably deduced why he was hesitant to explain anything here.

"Wait," she said. "Not now. I want to talk about it, but let's wait until we are tucked in at Uppsala." She paused and leaned into him, reaching up to kiss his check. "Thank you!" She felt his admiration and gratitude of being able to let it go for now. She was also pleased that she was getting the hang of this survival thing.

"Hrm," he said pulling her close and letting himself kiss her for a slow moment. "Tonight, find a place where we can renew our bond when I rise. Some place safe from prying eyes where we can take a small respite in each other. I need you so much!" he whispered in ear making her shiver all over. At his admission of need he had clutched her to him and turned his face away from her unconsciously denying his need for her. She wasn't having that! She pulled his face back and demanded he open his eyes and look at her. She pinned him with her eyes speaking in serious tones.

"I need you, too Eric. I will find a place for us." He made that Swiss Army Sound again and she felt a rush of desire coming at her from the bond. She sent it right back and leaned in to kiss him softly. She started the truck and pulled off the side of the parking lot, taking his hand in hers. "Dawn is nearly here, Eric." She had been right the windows were tinted and so no one could see into the vehicle at all. "Let's go," she pulled him with her as she wriggled between the front seats and into the back. She moved around and opened the coffin for him to slip inside. It was a tight fit in the back of the truck but he managed to get in, and get comfortable after shifting some stacks of cash around to the area where his feet were. Finally settling, he looked up at her again.

She had watched his every move learning how he did things, how he liked things to be done. Eric Northman wasn't the only one who could figure things out like what she wanted for dinner, she thought smugly. She could be a ninja sneak, too!

"What _are_ you thinking?" he asked her looking at her curiously.

"I am thinking that I picked a great teacher, and plan to be an A student!" was her enigmatic reply. She leaned in to kiss him goodnight before closing the lid. She made it sweet and chaste not wanting to start something that neither of them had any time for finish right now.

"You wanna try something before you go do sleep, Eric?" he nodded, hoping it was some new sexual position that would alleviate the need he felt pressing on him despite the oncoming day. "Ok, when we close the lid I want you to try and get into my mind while we are not touching. I want to see if our new bond connects us enough to allow for that now. Will you try? I want to try coming to you, too before I get back on the road. Would that be ok?" He nodded again.

"Since we don't know the face of our enemy it would be wise to prepare and use every advantage we have. You are brilliant!" He reached up and ran his hand along her face again, lovingly. She blushed and captured his hand to kiss his palm.

"See you soon," she said slowly lowering the lid. Once it was closed she let her hand linger on the outside for a minute and then looked around the outside of the car getting her game face on. Anyone watching who knew them would have recognized that flinty "Don't fuck with me!" look on her face as being so much like Eric it was eerie. She was responsible for his care until darkness came again. Nothing and NO ONE would get NEAR him! She swore furiously, moving now toward the driver's seat. She sat down, buckled herself in and took a deep breath.

Eric had felt her fierce protectiveness come through the bond and figured it was aimed at his now vulnerable position. He sent many things back to her, big love, big desire, and some amusement that she felt was his questioning if she was really that serious about keeping him safe.

She pushed herself, following the bond to his mind and then answered him there, tackling him and kissing him madly. "Damn right I mean it. You are MINE, Vampire! None shall touch you but me!"

"You sound like me, Sookie, talking about you!" he said kissing her back and held her close to him.

"Damn straight!" she confirmed. "Even I know you should never give yourself to someone who doesn't feel as fiercely for you as you do for them!" She stepped back from his embrace, jumping for joy. "Woohoooo! I followed the bond to your mind, Eric! If I can do it you can to! Come to me! Come to me NOW!" she demanded disappearing from his mind. Without thinking he dove after her.

In his mind's eye he saw a cliff, and he went over it holding on to the chord that, in his mind, represented the bond between them. Willing himself to her, next thing he knew he was in the familiar chamber of her mind. He was really starting to feel at home her, inside her like this.

She grabbed him again as soon as he appeared, kissing him possessively demandingly. He didn't fight her too hard, but he was aware of time passing outside and their vulnerability in a gas station parking lot. She felt his worry and pulled him back down to her lips. "'Don't you worry, I got skills you can't even dream of, cowboy!'" More questions flared to life in his mind and more desire in his body. Her quoting his fantasy dream Sookie while alluding to powers that she had yet to reveal to him piqued his interest on all levels.

_Gods, why must I always have to WAIT for this woman? Why is there never enough time to take her the way she needed to be taken? Arrrgh_!

"I heard that, Northman. Promise me, when we get to Uppsala, that unless there are assassins waiting for us on the doorstep that we can lock the door and leave the world outside for a while? You're not the only one who feels like we never have enough time." He kissed her again, and reluctantly stepped back. The sooner her let her go here, the sooner she would get moving and the sooner she would get them Uppsala. _Soon_, he thought to her and then slowly faded away as he withdrew.

As he died for the day he felt her missing him through the bond but he couldn't comfort her as he would have liked because he was busy missing her just as much.

Sookie on the road

After she got used to driving such a nice car, probably the nicest she had ever been behind the wheel of in her life, she started to really enjoy the trip. She had never been anywhere, except Dallas, and she had traveled there by plane and chauffer. She had never taken a road trip before.

The GPS guided her and she kept an eye on her speed, not wanting to give any excuse for a cop to pull her over and potentially risk Eric in his vulnerable state. When _She's My Ride Home_ came on the stereo she cranked the volume and sang along letting the miles slip past.

_We talked  
Together sharpening the knife  
Like killing partners for a life  
Hey we can hide the bodies on the ride home_

_Now here we are  
We're licking skin to wipe us clean  
Strike a match, pour gasoline  
Ditch the scene and watch this city burn  
Asleep, my life will be a pillow steering wheel turn_

_I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)  
Who cares if no one else believes  
So I, set fire to everyone around  
But I told you  
I told you  
We'd do it  
So ha ha ha ha  
ha ha ha ha  
Yeah we won_

We Drive  
To leave the past and clear the mind  
to watch the sunset set its time  
I swear you'll find  
I'm your ride home

Now close your eyes  
its' getting dark and the highways clear  
No sign of life from front to rear  
Its just you my dear  
On the ride home  
We're going home

_I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)  
Who cares if no one else believes  
So I, set fire to everyone around  
But I told you  
I told you  
We'd do it_

So ha ha ha ha  
ha ha ha ha  
Yeah we won  
We talked  
Together sharpening a knife  
Like killing partner for a life  
Hey we can hide the bodies on the ride home  
Cause we're going home

I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)  
Who cares if no one else believes  
So I, set fire to everyone around  
But I told you

_We'd do it_

Song after song that Eric had added to Sookie's playlist made her feel more and more at home behind the wheel of his car, on this trip, with him.

How did he know? The meal she figured out, he had paid the bill, but this? Had he raided her CD case in the Honda? She snickered picturing the super dashing sexy vampire lurking in her bushes waiting for her light to go off so he could come out of the bushes and fondle her CD's. No, not his style. More like he would go up to someone who knew her and demand to be told what she liked.

She let that play out for a minute, imagining him glamouring her friends to get the names of her favorite bands. "You will remember nothing of this," he told them dramatically, his accent peeking through, before flying off into the night. She smirked, amused by her own foolishness, reasonably sure that was not his style either, not really, at least not about something this insignificant.

On the other hand, she had been away for a year, and he clearly had been through her entire house already. Perhaps he had fondled her CD's after all? I bet he even had them in his cubby with him! She smiled to herself. Yes, she had found that cubby, the one he had so casually NOT mentioned to AT ALL. His smug ass was probably still thinking that she hadn't noticed it yet.

She had been furious at first, and then she had gone down there. What she had been expecting she wasn't sure, but definitely not what she found. It was surprisingly simple. A leather couch, like the ones a Fangtasia covered with a blanket and imitation fur pillows, and his books. In fact, one of those books had been open on the couch, like he had been in the middle of reading and just stepped away for minute. He had been staying here! Well, it was his house, she had thought. Why wouldn't he stay here? And right behind that, why would he?

Why would he buy my house at all?

Really, what was the point of buying this tumble down stack of sawdust? It meant a great deal to her, sure, but to him it was just a house to fix and flip, right? But if that were true why build a cubby for himself? Why bring his books here?

She moved over to perch on the edge of the couch and take a closer look. Most of the books seemed very old were in a language she couldn't read. After looking at a couple she realized they weren't even all in the same language! How many did he speak anyway?

She kept digging until she got to one that had a picture sticking out of it. She opened the book expecting any number of things, a naked woman, a naked Eric, a naked woman with a naked Eric, but what she saw instead was her high school senior picture. She gasped, realizing he must had found it in the mess that Mary Anne had left behind.

She looked at that picture thinking back. She had been so proud of herself for graduating. Gran had been, too. School had been so hard for her. It would have been so much easier to quit than to face the voices every day. The ones she couldn't keep out of her mind or the ones she couldn't keep out of her ears. _Crazy Sookie! Hey, Stackhouse is yer sister retarded, or what?_ Making it through to graduation had been an accomplishment. Gran wanted to commemorate the occasion. They had only been able to afford the one photo to be done professionally. She thought she had lost it forever, but Eric had saved it. She looked around the room with slightly wiser eyes than she had before.

Eric had saved her family legacy. Mentally, she ticked off the replaced, repaired and restored furniture that looked as good as new. That wasn't the kind of attention you paid to a conquest. A conquest was someone you wined and dined and bought fancy jewelry to impress. A conquest that was someone that came today and then left tomorrow at the latest.

What Eric had done here demonstrated a deep abiding friendship and respect, and more like the kind of thing you did for wife.

She had swallowed past that thought. Trying not to let it scare her, or to take it too seriously.

His wife?

_What do you want from me?_

_Everything_.

Was that everything?

If she were honest it was finding the cubby and the thoughts it evoked in her more than anything else that had put her on the porch, bag packed waiting for him two nights ago.

TWO NIGHTS?

How could so much happen so fast? How could it not have happened sooner? She regretted her time with Bill, immensely. When she thought about that, not what she had thought she had, but what she had to realize it truly was it was almost more than she could take.

Bill had been the source of some of the deepest humiliation she had ever been subjected to, and that was going some when you knew she grew up with a name like "Crazy Sookie." He took her so low…NO! She made herself push that away. Now was not the time to sift through that again.

The day passed quickly, she stopped to stretch and take a bathroom break a couple of times, grabbing a drink and a sandwich each time to keep up her strength. She also kept her foot to the floor to get as many miles between her precious cargo and Shreveport as possible. About an hour before sunset she started to look at the highway signs trying to find a good place to stop and renew their bond. She needed a shower and to stretch so she pulled into the Holiday Inn right off Interstate 70 somewhere near the Kansas Colorado border and checked in. Once she got a room she parked outside and waited for the sun to set. There was no way she was leaving him alone out here.

As sunset got closer she moved from the front to the back and when she heard the coffin open she squeezed in with him, not giving him a chance climb out. The confines of the travel coffin pressed her close into his body and she enjoyed that immensely. So did he from the SAS he made and the bond confirmed it.

Holding him close, her head turned to the side to rest over where his heartbeat would be she asked, "What's it like when you wake up? Is it gradual, like sleeping or are you just suddenly wide awake with your senses open full throttle?"

"More like the second one." He raised his hand to rest on the back of her head.

"Hrm, I bet you would be so sexy wiping the sleepies out of your eyes. If vampires had sleepies in their eyes I mean." He chuckled.

"You certainly are when you do, my Sookie."

"Just as well, I reckon," she said raising her head to look at him, pressing her chin to his chest and wriggling her body against his to bring her lips up to his. He groaned as he became aroused at her movements.

"Why is that?" he asked his voice almost as tight and strained as his jeans were at that moment.

"'Cause a girl's heart can only take so much, cowboy." She kissed him, like she had wanted to do all day to plundering him at a rate his Viking heart had to admire. Then he remembered he was the Viking in this relationship and started giving as good as he got.

He was about to ask if they had a room with a bed somewhere nearby when he heard something outside the truck and froze. When he tensed beneath her Sookie stilled as well.

It was full dark now but he could see just fine even though the treated glass with the dim parking lot lights.

A man was outside the truck and he seemed pretty interested at getting a look at what was inside. Eric turned his head to watch him as he moved all the way around the tinted vehicle and tried all the doors. Sookie ever mindful of his security had locked them before she joined him in the back. He looked at her, and touched his ear with his finger indicating her to listen to this man's thoughts.

She nodded, closed her eyes and focused on listening.


	10. I'm the Monster, Right?

A/N Thank you all so much for your comments and support. Here is the latest, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10- I'm the Monster, Right?

His thoughts came through gruff and growly and she knew immediately he was a Were of some kind_. Fuck, it's locked! I was supposed to put the bug inside so I could hear them talking. If I try and get in, someone might see or the vamper might notice my smell on the car. I bet he's in the hotel right now, fucking the whore who drove him around all day like he was he King of the World! Wait until he sees what I got for him. A big old fucking stake, or maybe better yet, a silver chain to a tree so he can watch the sunrise! Fuck, what do I do now?_

Eric felt Sookie's body tense, and then through the bond he felt…RAGE. BLACK RAGE. BERSERKER RAGE. Insanity washed over her face and he was looking at _her_ in _this_ world for the first time, **_The Cast Iron Bitch_**. She snarled, not at him, but at the figure outside, her body starting to glow and shove away from his, moving toward the door.

Eric was fighting not to be swept away in the rage that was pouring into him through the bond. His hands clenched into claws that wanted to rend and tear, his fangs dropping on instinct. He had no idea what was about to happen. Even if he had been told in advance and shown pictures he would not have believed it.

He saw the man outside tense up. Then he let out a strangled cry before it was cut off sharply.

"GET IN", the CIB commanded, waving her hand at the front passenger door. The lock popped up, of its own accord. His body moved stiffly, shuffling over, opening the door and climbing in. Eric could smell his terror, and it smelled…_good_. The rage in him longed to taste that fear with his fangs.

"LOOK AT ME!" the man's head turned and she drilled into his eyes, into his mind, sorting his brain like a card catalog. He opened his mouth to scream in pain. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" his lips clamped shut. Blood was running from his eyes. Uncaring, she pressed him harder. His body was jerking, a seizure perhaps or just reaction to her violent intrusion, Eric had no idea, could barely care.

Eric had turned on his side and was inching out of his coffin, watching Sookie crouched between him and the man in the front passenger seat. He couldn't see her face, but he heard her tone as she commanded the Were to do her bidding while she brain raped him. Eric was torn. His instincts pressed him to feed when he smelled the blood, the master in him commanded that the take charge of this situation, but he wanted to see where this went. He needed to measure the full extent of what she could do. There was also a tiny part of him that wanted to stop it before she did something she would regret.

_That ship has probably sailed_, he thought, looking at the hemorrhaging man. Since she would regret this anyway, the pragmatic side of his nature insisted he remain silent and observe, refusing to give in to his instinctive responses, and to push back on the rage still barreling through to him from the bond.

"SLEEP," she commanded and the man immediately crumpled down in the front seat and the CIB turned back to look at him.

"THIS ONE WISHES TO HARM YOU, VAMPIRE. NOT THAT I GIVE A FUCK, BUT IT SEEMS TO MATTER TO **THE PIXIE** AND **THE CHILD** A GREAT DEAL." So many questions ran through his mind. He wanted to talk to her about what she meant but he had to stick on topic and find out what this man's intentions were.

"What does he plan? Does he know who blew up the plane? "

"HE PLANS TO FOLLOW YOU, DISCOVER YOUR DESTINATION THEN REPORT YOUR WHEREABOUTS TO SOMEONE NAMED ROMAN. HE HAS BEEN FOLLOWING YOU SINCE YOU LEFT SHREVEPORT. HE WAS INSTRUCTED TO PLANT A LISTENGING DEVICE INSIDE THIS VEHICLE AND TRACKING DEVICE ON THE OUTSIDE AS BACKUP."

"Does he know what Roman will do when he finds out where I am headed?"

"HE HOPES THAT ROMAN WILL TELL HIM TO KILL YOU, EITHER WITH A STAKE OR BY CHAINING YOU TO MEET THE SUN." She growled as she spoke the words. Her eyes practically dripping crazy on the upholstery. The bond suddenly went so taught with the desire to murder and kill that it almost tripped his own darker urges, again. Using restraint that had taken him a thousand years to master he pulled himself back from the edge of that darkness. One of them being crazy right now was probably one too many as it was. They would really be fucked beyond all measure if the both surrendered to the darkness at the same time. How did she have the power to do this to him? He was the monster in this relationship…wasn't he? "BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW FOR SURE WHAT ROMAN WILL DO."

"Is Roman Vampire?"

"UNKNOWN. HE MIGHT BE, BUT IF SO THIS FUCK DOESN'T KNOW IT. HE HATES ALL VAMPIRES, AND WOULD AS SOON KILL ONE AS ANOTHER." She stopped there, and seemed to be waiting.

"Are there others or is he the only one?"

"UNKNOWN."

"Does he suspect where we are going?"

"NO."

Eric paused here, then asked what we really on his mind. "What is your recommendation?"

"LET ME KILL HIM. SLOWLY." When he did not speak right away she dropped her gaze and then added. "I WILL DO AS YOU SAY, _TEACHER_." That last word cost her, he saw it on her face. She resented acknowledging him in this way. He could feel it in the bond. He wasn't surprised, it was what he had expected to feel when he had first imagining encountering the CIB in the bond.

Considering his options, he asked, "Can you make him think that he placed the bug on our car and put it on another to follow instead? Can you make him forget he was caught and that we spoke to him?" She considered.

"YES." His eyes narrowed, he sensed deception in the bond.

"I mean it, we need him to believe he is following us and keep reporting that back. If you kill him or debilitate him in any way the odds are good that another will be sent. I feel your rage, Warrior, I long to drink deeply of it and join you in killing those who wish us harm, but in this instance the better choice is subterfuge."

She was not capable of reasoning thought. Her rage increased, and he wouldn't have believed that to even be possible. Her body literally convulsed in front of him and for a moment he thought she might seize herself. Then she regained control, the rage going back down a notch. She turned to the man in front.

"UP!" she commanded. "CLEAN OFF YOUR FACE." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. When he was done wiping the blood off, he sat up and opened the door, closing it again behind him. He moved to the car next to theirs, a similar make and build. Eric watched as the man planted the tracking device under that car, try the door and then walk away toward what was presumably his car, a white Corolla, take out a bag and then walk into the hotel. He checked in, and then disappeared into the elevator, presumably off to his room for the night.

Beside him Sookie had been stiff and silent as she piloted him around. She remained that way for several minutes after he was out of sight and then she turned to face him again. He had been tracking her through the bond and had felt her energy waning and her rage receding as she walked her puppet around.

Then her frame relaxed and she turned to him. The CIB was gone, and in her place was Sookie, with tears in her eyes remorse and shame poured through the bond. He immediately regretted not stopping her from hurting the man. He knew this would be too much for her. He swore at himself as he moved toward her to pull her closer and soothe her. She pulled away from him.

Eric was shocked and hurt. She had not pulled away from him since they had bonded. He felt loathing and shame in the bond and immediately started to apologize for allowing her to do what she had done.

"I'm sorry, Sookie, I-"she held up a hand for silence, cutting him off.

"No, you don't owe me an apology, Eric." His eyes widened in surprise. "I owe you one." He sat back, now feeling like someone had kicked him in the chest.

"Wha-?" She cut him off again, bowing her head, tears flowing freely now down her cheeks.

"You trusted me to keep you safe. You asked me to find us someplace safe to renew our bond and I failed you on both counts. I am ashamed." She hung her head now, kneeling before him, bordering on sobs.

WHAT THE FUCK? She pulled away from his touch, so he couldn't console her that way. He could feel her shame and sorrow through the bond, as well as her exhaustion. He had no idea what she had just done, but it had saved them both and she was cowering in front of him. He soothed her through the bond, sending her strength and support, and making sure that she could feel his love and how proud he was of her for what she had done.

"You feel proud?" she asked disbelievingly. Her self-loathing so overwhelming it overtook his own feelings completely in the bond. "I can't do a fucking thing right, not even a simple thing when you ask it of me, and you feel proud?" Her tone indicated that she thought he might be mentally defective in some way.

Eric wanted to say and do about a million things in that moment. He wanted to reassure her and list all the ways and reasons he was proud. He wanted to ask her what she had implanted in the Were's head. He wanted to kiss her until her stupid self-loathing lips could do nothing but sigh under his kisses. He wanted to drink from her deeply while he was buried inside her slick heat, showing her exactly how much he loved and needed her. He did and said none of those things.

He was the teacher. She had asked and he had accepted. He had to live up to his end of the deal. He found another more relevant truth to give her instead, and in doing so donned an old Mask that he had not worn since Pam was turned.

"Sookie, sometimes survival, is about gaining time, even a minute can make the difference. Time to think, to plot to plan to prepare and to know your enemy. Tonight, we have met ours and we both live. To ask for more would be unreasonable at this juncture." She said nothing to that, but at least didn't argue back. He moved around her, still not touching her, and took his place in the driver's seat. He noted with pleasure that the tank was full. They could move now and try and sort this out later.

"Come, Sookie. We need to be away from this place as soon as possible."

"Eric, wait." He turned to see what was going to happen next and saw her sitting there with her face showing strain and concentration. In the bond he could feel her reaching out, looking for other minds and followers she might have missed before. Again he felt proud, but rather than start another argument he stuffed it back down not letting it across the bond. Instead he sent her strength to bolster her efforts and was gratified to see her expression ease as she accepted his gift to her. She opened her eyes after several minutes and said, "Seems clear. I will listen while you drive to be sure." He nodded and turned to pull out of the space and get back on the interstate, regretting his loss of time with her tonight. Again he pressed it down, not wanting to spark another self-flagellation session in his Beloved over something neither of them could change.

As he slipped out of the road she sat beside him again buckled in and concentrating on the cars around them with a fierce expression on her face. Her hands were carefully tucked between her knees, locked together and twisting occasionally as she heard whatever she was hearing from those around them.

As Sookie listened to the outside she also listened to the inside. Outside…

_Fuck I forgot the salt. Marge is gonna kill me.._

_I wonder if he will be there tonight? I want to see him so bad…_

_If this asshole in front of me taps his breaks one more time I am gonna roll outta this car and shoot him in his fucking face…_

_Oh, gawd, last time we fucked she wore those…_

_He's going to fire me, I know he is…_

Inside…

**_You have disappointed me again, Sookie. Why are you always disappointing me? You know what happens now don't you? We sit down and go through it all step by step until you see where you went wrong, and then I punish you…so that it will never happen again._**

_NO! Not yet_, she mentally shouted back. _I need to do this first, I need to listen and protect Eric now. I will do this later. Later, I will come to you and accept what must be done._

**_Ah, there you go disappointing me again, Sweetheart. Yes, let's do this later. I want you to have time to make it worse._**

She focused back outside and resumed listening to the cars around her. The guy in the car next to her was singing Johnny Cash's _When the Man Comes Around_. She smiled a wise and sad smile and thought how appropriate, moving on to the next car.

She asked Eric to slow down and speed up at different times, letting the cars shift around them. He watched the mirrors and looked for any suspicious lane changing, and even left the interstate a couple of times looking for followers while she listened.

After several hours he was convinced that they were no longer being followed. He kept his foot down though determined to distance them from the man they had left at the Holiday Inn. He told her to get some rest, as she would be back behind the wheel tomorrow and she needed to be alert. She didn't fight him. She just turned toward the window and closed her eyes. After several minutes her breathing evened out and he knew she was sleeping.

Eric immediately started analyzing the evening's events. Sookie's power to move things with her mind, her ability to alter memories. Not to mention her complete lack of caring and compassion for her victim. Definitely not the Sookie he thought he knew. When had it changed? Had it changed? He had seen signs of the CIB before when she dealt with Talbot's remains, and maybe too when she had shot the Were in her living room? She had not been remorseful then, either. He had not seen her after she killed Lenier but somehow, he didn't think she would have been too upset about avenging her grandmother's death either. At its heart was that not also what she was showing him when she stood up to him and even dared to strike him? Was it all the same part of her at varying intensity?

He had expected her to be upset because she hurt someone. She was devastated because she felt she almost allowed HIM to be hurt. He filed that for now and moved on the next pressing item.

Someone was after them, well him. Roman? Roman Zimojic? The Authority wanted him dead? Why? Maybe that stunt he pulled with Russell Edgington? How would they have found out? King Bill? He and Pam were the only other ones who knew that he had not sent Russell to his Final Death. He thought back, to his last conversation with Bill, the night before he had gone to see Sookie, the night before they had left together. What had he been prattling on about? Witches, something about witches? Bill might be King now but that certainly did nothing to make him more tolerable, or less pompous and dramatic. Asshole, Eric thought, curling his lip in disgust. I wouldn't be surprise if he turned me in for not killing Russell, but Nora would have contacted me, she would have warned me if she knew the Authority was after me, he reassured himself.

Besides, if the head of the fucking Authority were after him there would be a fucking army of soldiers on their asses, not some raggedy Were that had all the stealth of a fangbanger hitting Fangtasia for the first time. Too lacking in order for it to be coming from the top.

Someone posing as Roman? Who would be that fucking crazy? To bring that kind of thunder down, posing as the leader of the Authority? His mind took him back to Russell. But Russell was not able to make a play like this? Right?

And what of Nora? What if she was in danger, too? He filed this away for now, not having enough information to make a decision at this point. In time, if he was patient more would be discovered and he would better be able to choose a course of action then. At this point he could well be endangering anyone he reached out to, like he was endangering Sookie right now.

When she had asked to go away with him and leave all this behind, he had pretended to have no idea it would follow them. He had let himself for just a minute think that he could take her away and just BE. Just let himself be happy. It had been a ridiculous fantasy and he should never have indulged himself.

It would have been worse if she had stayed in Bon Temps, if they were not a moving target someone one would have tried to kill her or steal her by now and no matter how much he wanted to there was no way he could be there every time to save her. He had learned that the hard way when she was taken by the Fae, right under his fucking nose practically. He sighed. So much had happened in the short time they had been together and there was never enough time to think it through, to talk about it, to figure out what any of it meant.

_Why did things move so fucking fast when you had all of eternity to make any decision?_ _Because someone is always trying to take eternity from you_, the answer came back to him.

His thoughts drifting back to Sookie again he considered her new powers and how to find out what else she was capable of. There was also the physical manifestation of the CIB, and this self-loathing at what she thought had been her mistake. It was so strong that it was making him uncomfortable now through the bond even though she was asleep.

Wait…he was feeling that through the bond…thinking back over the turn of his thoughts he was definitely being influenced by it. What the fuck was happening in there? He looked at her head, still facing the window, away from him and started to look for some place to stop. He needed to look for himself. Seeing a rest stop a few miles ahead, he sped up and raced toward the pull off. Feeling pressed that every minute counted here.

Pulling into the first space available and turning the truck off her steadied himself and closed his eyes, reaching out for her via the bond. As always that moment of shivery delight in his body and then he was in.

For the second time that night, even if he had been told what to expect he would never have believed it, not with pictures, not with songs, not with some yokel swearing on a stack of King James editions.

Before him, Sookie kneeled on the floor of her chamber, naked. Her back was raw and bleeding. She was sobbing quietly, hunched over so that her head almost touched the floor. Looking around Eric saw the door labeled **_Bill_** was open.

He turned and found himself face to face with Bill Compton. Bill sneered at him, somehow managing to look down his nose at someone who was over a foot taller than himself in that annoying way of his.

"Welcome, Eric. Perhaps you would care to join us?" Bill cracked the whip he obviously had been using on Sookie's back and looked at him like he was sure Eric was going to say, yes and take a turn with the whip himself. How could he not after all?


	11. How Far FromHere to There?

A/N Thank you as always for your comments and support. Can't wait to hear what you think about this one!

Chapter 11- How Far From There to Here?

"Welcome, Eric. Perhaps you would care to join us?" Bill cracked the whip he obviously had been using on Sookie's back and looked at him like was sure Eric was going to say, yes and take a turn with the whip himself. How could he not after all?

Eric stood there, processing what he was seeing at mad vampiric rates of speed. His instinctive reaction was to punch Bill in the face, but that was always his instinctive reaction. Emotionally, it still sounded good. Logically, he knew _this_ was _not_ Bill. Bill Compton did not have the power to enter Sookie's mind the way he did. He was sure of that. So, logically, _this_ was Sookie in some form or another. Right? There was no there to reassure him. He was on his own with this one.

Was he making a mistake thinking that only he had this power? He had his own door, too. Maybe they all got one when she invited them in? _No_, jealousy flared in him as he thought of her sharing this gift that Compton. Standing before him, Bill laughed.

"Jealous of me are you, Eric? Did you think you were the only one with the key to the Kingdom? I love to be the one to tell you that you are not nearly as special as you think you are!"

Bill chuckled now and moved around Eric closer to Sookie, who was still kneeling, sobbing on the floor. Punching Bill was not the only instinctive response he was fighting. Seeing her like that was causing him pain, but in as much as he could not protect her from himself, nor he could not protect her from herself either.

This was something he needed to understand _before_ he waded in and possibly made it worse. Not that he could imagine how he could make it worse at this point, but a long life had taught him that anything could _always_ be worse. He had to keep "Compton" talking, he needed information.

"I'm not?" he asked turning to follow Bill's image.

"Not at all, Eric. I mean I know you always thought you were, that Sookie would leave me for you because you were richer, older, smarter, and sure enough turned out you were right. But you know what?" Bill paused grinning at him like he was about to tell him the best punch line ever. "I had her first, Viking," he whispered, holding his hand up pantomiming keeping this between the two of them though Sookie could obviously hear him since he was still talking in his normal tone of voice. "And she really isn't worth all the fuss!" Bill finished, chuckling gaily as though they were sipping tea on the veranda discussing the weather and not the woman they had both loved so much that they had nearly let Russell Edgington kill them to save her. Bill was a prick, no doubt, but even Bill was not _this_ big of a prick, at least not to Sookie.

"Hrm, so, what is going here exactly, Compton?" Eric glanced around the chamber verifying that all the other doors were closed, but noting for the first time that on the floor in front of Tea Cup Sookie's door was Mr. Jones the turtle. The way she clutched that thing the whole time she was talking to him he found it hard to believe that she had left it anywhere that she wasn't herself. He heard her whisper in his mind _Oh, and I talk to Missa Jones. Missa Jones knows de best secwets! _Eric, filed that away for another time.

"Well, Eric, Sookie has failed you, as she has often failed me. I am helping her determine the error of her ways and then attempting to teach her to do better the next time." Eric arched a brow and looked down at Compton.

"And how has Sookie failed me exactly?" he tone was hard and his gaze flinty.

"She failed to protect you when you were resting. She failed to provide a secure location in which to feed and care for you as you asked her do. It's really all so sad!" For just a minute it looked Bill was channeling Russell Edgington he was being so dramatic with his words and actions. "She used to fail me all the time to, Eric. I was constantly correcting her, guiding her, and she was constantly humiliating me in front of my peers and superiors. Honestly, sometimes I would just cringe at the thought of taking her anywhere, knowing that PWT mouth of hers would wind up being the death of me one day!" He walked a few steps away at this point shaking his head. Suddenly, he turned, "Can you imagine how much worse it would have been if I ever cared about her at all? Thank goodness our whole relationship was just based on me tricking her and using her until she became the Queen's Pet, and welcome to this bothersome girl, I tell you!" With that he flicked his wrist and laid another stripe across Sookie's bleeding back. She cried out and continued sobbing.

"It was so sickening to seduce this pathetic little country bumpkin. She was so ignorant it was like fucking a sack of dirty laundry, lumpy and occasionally something hit the right spot. Of course, I always felt dirty when I was done." Eric clenched his teeth forcing himself not to speak. It was getting hard to hold his tongue. He heard the whip crack again, other than screaming Sookie said nothing and continued kneeling on the floor.

"Tell us, Sookie," Bill commanded, "What did you do wrong today?" She kept her head down and began cataloging her sins.

"I failed to keep Eric safe. I failed for find a secure location to feed him. I endangered him by distracting him and allowing my desire to be close to his body get in the way of being on alert to keep him safe…"

As she went on, Eric became more and more certain that what he was watching was Sookie punishing herself using Bill's voice and image. That somehow, this was her way of torturing herself for what she thought she had done wrong. He let that sink in for a minute and then he heard her again tell him, "_I don't think you are going to like what you find, Eric. There are some dark places in me now, places that even I have no refuge from. They are sharp, and moldy and they burn me." _Eric's felt his heart break that so much damage had been done and that it was so overwhelming to her that she had to splinter herself into different pieces in order to protect herself. Obviously, it didn't always work, but at its heart, was it any different than the Masks he made? Was he processing any better, or hiding himself? A strange thought came to him unbidden and unexpected.

_A Rose by any other name is a Door and Mask. _ His own understanding clicked into place so loudly he jumped.

Gods, they were so much alike, it terrified him! Then he heard it again, "_You haffa show me, Ewic. So I can kiss it, 'n make it better!"_ It rolled through him like thunder, and it nearly took him out at the mental knees, she was asking him to let her do for him what she needed him to do for her_. "We seem to want the same thing. The problem is that we are nowhere near the water."_

_Well, we're in the fucking water now! _He thought fiercely, feeling like he was barely holding on from being swept away in the current. The cold logical part of him took just a moment to wonder how in twenty six tiny years she had managed to get as fucked up as he had in thousand, but he pushed that back for now. The time for analyzing was over, now it was time to act the role he had been assigned here.

**"YOU WILL STOP THIS NOW, WOMAN!**" Eric's roar caused tiny stones to fall from the walls of her mind chamber. It echoed down the halls of her mind, calling to itself over and over. For the first time Sookie on the floor looked up. Bill dropped the whip stepping back toward his door a fearful expression on his face.

Fully realizing something what he had been processing since meeting Tea Cup Sookie and she had complained of his scratchy beard, Eric pulled himself up and grew, and grew and grew. Sookie had given him not only entrance to her mind, but the power to manifest his wishes in her mind.

She had given him so much trust, and asked him to teach her, he would do his best not to let her down.

Towering above the splintered facets of this woman that he loved, he looked at them. Watching her tear herself apart he said the only thing that he could have been said that would make this better.

"I've got you, Sookie," he whispered it down to her from his towering position above her and opened his arms to her, silently asking her to grow and join him. Slowly, she stood and stepped toward him.

"No!" Bill screamed, stepping in her path. She hesitated, then stepped around him and kept coming, her eyes locked on Eric. Each step she took not only brought her closer to him but also increased her height until for once, she was as tall as he was. She smiled when she stepped into his open arms, and laid her chin on his shoulder. They stood above Bill and all the doors now like Alice just having drank some magic potion.

Eric pulled back from her and kissed her on the forehead. "Finish this now, Sookie. I've got you and this will end now." She nodded and turned in his arms looking down at tiny image of Bill Compton. He was frozen in position, in fact it was like all time had stopped entirely and nothing was moving the universe but the two of them. _And maybe Mr. Jones_, Eric thought, eyeing him suspiciously, but again, this was not the time.

"My life up until the time I met Bill was filled with other people's thoughts. I could never explain to you what that was like Eric. I could tell you that every second of every day I felt dirty with their thoughts, but what would that mean? It would be like trying to explain what happened on the roof in Dallas to someone who was not there. Words. Only words. Impossible to convey their depth, and meaning," she paused.

"The horrible things people keep inside, which was most of the time is actually worse than what came out of their mouths overwhelmed me. I was so lonely, Eric. I wanted dates and dinners and flowers and all the things that other girls thought they were getting. I wanted to be close to someone, anyone at times. But the secret thoughts I heard told me that all that was an illusion at best. It was foolish but I resented not being allowed even the illusion that they got. I wanted it so bad!

"I thought I had accepted that I would never have it, that I could never have it because I could hear their thoughts, and that ruined it for me. Then, I met Bill and I couldn't hear him." She paused here, trembling a little in his arms, he just pulled her tighter. "Oh, Eric I was so foolish. I let myself believe that just because I couldn't hear him thinking the kinds of things I had come to count on from others that he was above having them at all! It was so easy to let myself be the kind of fool I had seen others be all my life. I put all my faith in him. I gave him everything I was and it was so easy. Then when I found out that everything, all of it had been a lie, it broke me.

"It broke me because it changed how I saw myself. I had _asked_ for this, _prayed_ and _begged_ for this to happen to me. To be a fool, that gave everything she was to someone only to find that I had let myself be humiliated. I was supposed to _know_ better. I was supposed to be _smarter_. I was the most foolish of all for allowing myself to be taken in. For believing in anything other than myself. And now, after Bill I deserved to be alone because I was no longer even able to trust myself. I knew better and I LET THIS HAPPEN! I betrayed _myself_, Eric. That is the worst of all, that I betrayed _myself_." This last was said in a sad whisper.

Eric held her close and rubbed her hands with his, pushing love and acceptance through the bond, and said the last thing she would have ever expected. "I am grateful for your time with, Bill, Sookie."

"WHAT?" Incredulous, she turned in the circle of his arms to look at him. He couldn't possibly be serious.

"I am sorry that you had to be hurt, but I know that if all of that hadn't gone the way it had you would not be the woman you are today. **My** woman. The woman who asked me to go away with her, to teach her, who cared for me, who made love to me in the shower while visions of other places and times filled our minds. In all those visions all those Sookie's and all those Eric's all had their own paths to walk to get to each other.

"You really think that your experience in twenty-six years makes you more unique and less of a fool than what I might have been in a thousand?" She blinked at him. She'd never thought about it that way. "Before I became the, what was it you called me the other night in the shower, '_bar owner and all around smokin' vamp playboy', _don't you suppose I might have been hurt, too? That I might have made some less than stellar decisions?

"Sookie, if I hadn't walked from _there_ to _here_ I wouldn't be able to teach you anything." He smiled at her now, "Let this go, Sookie. Let go of this part of yourself that punishes you for wrongs both real and imagined. Let this go, and learn and grow with me. Let this go and be with me now, as you have asked me to be with you. Be with me now."

After a moment she nodded, and looking down he saw that the door with Bill on it was gone, and so was the image of him from the chamber. Her back had healed now as well, her skin smooth once more.

She still stood in his arms looking at him, seeming a little unsure of what was going to happen next. "Sookie, will you remember this when you wake up?"

"I don't know."

"Will it be ok to talk about this with you when we reach Uppsala and have the chance to do so uninterrupted? Will you believe me if you don't remember on your own?"

"You already know the answer to this," was all she said.

Still eye to eye with him she smiled at him. "You should go now, Eric." He nodded, and returned to the real, no he corrected himself, the _physical_ world. What happened in her mind was just as real as what happened here. It was real…it was all _real_.

He opened his eyes in the truck, looking at the sleeping girl beside him and let that sink in for a minute.

The CIB was real, The Child was real, Bill was real, true, not the physical world form of Bill Compton but a real representation of Sookie's fractured psyche in his form. Her minds defense to keep itself intact when faced with too much to handle.

For the second time he wondered if he was in over his head.

He had thought was she was asking too much when she asked him to take off his Masks, and perhaps she was, but she had opened her doors for him, some of them anyway and he thought that the rest would come with time. How could he do less for her than she was doing for him? If she was willing to share herself with him completely, could he do less now that he understood that it was Sookie asking?

Until tonight he might have hidden behind the notion that her offer had less baggage than his, but after tonight he saw that for the excuse that it was?

She was his, and he was hers, and they were both so spectacularly fucked up that it couldn't have been any other way. For some reason even this scary revelation made him feel warm in his chest, because in addition to being scary it was right. It felt right.

He thought of waking her before getting back on the road, but decided against it. It was better she rest while she could. There was still about four hours of night left, and he could stop later and make sure she was ok before switching off drivers for the day.

As Eric headed down the road he started to really look forward to seeing Uppsala again, and in being someplace he could put his back against the wall, and gods willing his hands on his woman. It seemed like forever since he had tasted her, felt her around him. More than that though he missed her. He disliked the necessity of her being awake while he rested and vice versa. He wanted her at his side, at all times.

His speed increased a little at the thought of holding her again. Uppsala looming on the horizon of his mind.

_There would be truth in Uppsala as of old,_ he thought speeding into the night. Sookie, still sleeping beside him was dreaming of roses, masks and doors and hearing someone tell her that it was all a universe by any other name.


	12. Do You See Me?

A/N- Thank you all for your comments and support. Lemonade and pie ahead!

Chapter 12 – Do You See Me?

Shopping with Eric was like everything else with Eric, epic. Sookie was pushing a buggy that was piled so full of items that she couldn't even see over the top of and she still had a half a dozen things on the list to get. She hadn't seen Eric since they split up at the door but she could feel him occasionally through the bond, excitement, joy, amusement. He seemed to be having the best freaking time ever, wherever he was.

_Next time, I am taking the fun part_, she thought grumpily to herself.

She had been through the grocery section already, getting not only things she wanted but Eric had provided a list, too. She was intrigued and hoping for a repeat of The War of the Spud. She had also been assigned the camping section which she had completed ransacking, again per Eric's list. Now she was headed to household to meet up with Eric.

After this shopping expedition she was looking forward to getting into a hot tub and relaxing. Three days of nonstop being on the road had kicked her ass.

Which of course reminded her to swing by HBA for soaps, and other things that ladies might need while hiding out in the wilderness. She was headed out when saw some massage oils that caught her eye. She had an evil look on her face as she added them to her pile of booty and wondered if he had just gotten a blast of the same excitement, enjoyment and amusement that she had been getting from him. Man, she hoped so!

She continued her trek through the store following the bond and hoping that the low foot traffic at ten at night would reduce the risk of running over anyone. In fact, she was so intent on the bond that she didn't even notice all the people who were there staring at her tiny frame pushing the overflowing buggy like it was empty.

She found him, his cart overflowing as well, looking at towels and sheets. Clearly, from his expression they were not the sort of thing he was used to, but well, in a town that boasted around twenty thousand people she sure hoped he wasn't expecting silk and designer labels. Speaking of which, she stood on tip toe and peeked into his buggy. Clothes had been on his list and she wanted to see what he gotten for them.

"No peeking," he said still scrutinizing the linens, apparently sensing her curiosity through the bond. She smirked. _Cheater_, she thought.

"No, you are the cheater, wanting to peek before we get home." _Home…he said home_, and the fact that she totally agreed with him, left her standing in the middle of the Wal-Mart in Kalispell, MT with her jaw hanging open.

"Of course its home, Sookie. You will be there." Eric kept right on perusing towels and didn't seem to realize that she was not actually speaking out loud. _Can you hear me?_ she thought at him.

"Of course I can hear you, you're standing right there," his reply sounded slightly exasperated with her distracting him again with such a ridiculous question. Then he apparently listened to himself. She felt a rush of excitement through the bond from him. He turned to face her, his eyes narrowed. _Can you hear me, Sookie_? She nodded. _Well,_ he thought, _this is interesting_.

_Can you hear the other people here, Eric?_ He looked around and found some people to their left. An older couple arguing over which frying pan to get. He stared holes in them and then turned back to her. _Unless I am doing it wrong, I don't hear them. Can you?_

Her turn to listen.

_Every damned time. Every damned time. We fight about it every damned time... _

She turned back and nodded that she could hear them. Eric stood for a moment and then nodded, seeming to take in stride this latest turn of events.

Eric pulled her back to the moment by choosing some towels, dark blue and sheets in the same color. He started to move toward the register, and then taking in the size of her load started to reach out and pull hers, too. Before he could get his hand on it, Sookie started pushing from the back and nearly ran over him. She felt that cart bump into something.

"Sorry," she said leaning around seeing it was him. Apparently, it was catching to drop your jaw in this place. He looked positively stymied. Then he shook himself and moved on, she caught confusion, excitement and shock in the bond but didn't press him. When they finally got to Uppsala she was going to tie him up for days and make him talk to her.

_If you tie me up, we will not be talking._

She couldn't help it, she laughed. _If I tie you up you have to do what I say!_

_And what would you say? Am I supposed to believe that with me at your beck and call completely vulnerable to your every desire you would only want to talk?_

_Yes._

_Beautiful liar._

_Maybe._ She sensed laughter in the bond.

The checkout girl caught whatever was going around, first when we saw their carts and then when she saw Eric. When he smiled at her, the poor girl nearly lost her mind. Sookie knew exactly how she felt.

_What is she thinking?_

_How handsome you are. She doesn't think that she has ever seen a more beautiful man ever_. Sookie looked at him, and took in his sweeping height, his dazzling blue eyes, his unbelievable ass, and his devastating smile and though she had seen him often over the past few days she let herself see him as this checkout girl saw him.

_My unbelievable- what? What was that?_ He glanced at, her arching a brow as he put items up on the checkout waiting to see if she would tell him again how fine his bottom was.

_Ass, Eric, as in don't' be one! Your unbelievable ass!_ He laughed out loud then, and not only did he light up but the girl behind the counter did, too, thinking she had made him smile like that.

_She's right you know? You are perfection walking_. He stopped in the middle of pulling something from the cart and looked at her, his face in awe as he heard her thoughts. _She's wrong, too though. It's not what you look like that makes you so fucking fabulous. It's the man inside. I barely know him yet myself, but every time I see him he takes my breath away. _

_ He shines through in the things he does, like saving someone's home for them…in taking the time to learn to cook even though he doesn't eat himself…in working whatever mysterious mojo he's got going on and figuring out what music I like…in making a run for our very lives seem like a romantic getaway. _

_The way he fights for what he wants, and then to hold onto it with every ounce of his soul. He isn't afraid to get dirty to get what he wants or to keep it. _

_He inspires me to want to be better than I am just so I can impress him._

_Him, he's the one that melts my panties, the rest is just beautiful window dressing._

Eric was lost in listening to her, frozen to the spot and the checkout girl had finely caught up to him. She cleared her throat to get his attention and finally be broke eye contact with Sookie and started pulling more items from the buggy.

_It's killing me to not be able to touch you right now, but I think we have attracted enough attention here as it is._

_I'm right here, Eric. I'm not going anywhere without you, and I feel exactly the same way. Keeping you safe is our number one focus. I need to keep you safe. So you can melt my panties later. You did get some spares, right?_ Amusement through the bond again.

_Nope._

_Nope?_

_Nope. I plan to keep you panty free at all times. We have days of time we missed to make up for. There will be no need for panties. You will either be unconscious or riding me. No exceptions. _

_Well, you just melted the pair I was wearing, so yer off to a good start. _ He chuckled at that, placing his final item up on the register. He stood and pulled his buggy through so that he could start unloading hers.

"Is this together?" the checkout girl asked before picking up the first thing that had come from Sookie's buggy.

"Always," Eric answered, smiling at her again, as he continued to line things up on the conveyor.

_Always_, Sookie echoed back and she felt him make the SAS through the bond. More than ever she couldn't wait to get home.

While Eric and the checkout girl worked on unloading her cart she let her mind drift back to this morning when they had stopped to switch off drivers before the sun came up.

He had awakened her gently with butterfly kisses on her neck and cheeks. As soon as felt her stir he gently pulled her across the console into his lap, She straddled him, and then he laid his seat back as low as it would go, pulling her down on top of him.

Once she was safely in his arms, she felt his body relax beneath her, well part of it anyway, and she melted into him, getting as close as she could, grinding herself against his erection pressing between her thighs and feeling her body clench with a need for him.

Eric was torn. He felt he should talk to her about what had happened both in the physical as well as the mental plane but he wanted to reaffirm their bond. He _needed_ to reaffirm their bond and perhaps it was better to do it before risking harsh words and anger that could drive them further apart. Sookie solved his dilemma by latching on to his neck with her mouth, and biting gently, while grinding down on him.

"Please, Eric." It was all she said, it was all she needed to say. The rest he felt through the bond. She needed to know he still loved her before they faced the aftermath of everything. She needed to feel him, as much as he did her. Decision made, he kissed her. There was so much he wanted to say, so he said it in the way he kissed her, projecting his thoughts and feelings into actions in hopes she would understand.

He kiss told her that he would drink her pain and free her if she would let him, or he would stand beside her every step of the way if she had to cover the distance herself.

His touch insisted on showing her all the things that lived outside the pain, removing her clothing gently, teasingly before touching her in all her secret places that he was coming to learn.

His moans told her that he longed to join with her, and that nothing less than complete immersion into her could ever satisfy him.

When he slid in, his hands pulling her hips down she looked in his eyes and saw that not only was she accepted, there was no doubt she was loved. She felt it in every thrust, every kiss, and every touch.

It was so strong she felt it take her breath away and for just a moment she wanted to run, she felt so exposed to him. Like she would never be able to figure out where he ended and she began and for a second she lost her breath again, dizzy from the size and power of this thing between them. She reached out for something to hold onto and found…more Eric.

He had sat up and taken a nipple in his cool mouth, tugging it in time with his thrusts between her thighs nicking it with his fangs, moaning as a drop of blood caressed his tongue. Then he switched to the other, feeling her clench around him in time with his mouth on her.

She was losing herself to him. That was what she was afraid of more than anything else. Seeking to take back control and confirm to herself that she was driving this and not him she slammed her body down on him harder, and faster, meeting his every thrust and forcing him to pick up his pace, making him gallop for her, as she pushed him back down on the seat. Riding him was so exquisite that in no time her orgasm ripped through her but rather than surrender to it she gritted her teeth and forced her body on through it, it wasn't her surrender she needed, it was his.

He had so much of her now in the palm if his hand. She needed something back, some hostage to ransom should he take her soul entirely, that might it survive in some form, go on in some way.

She leaned in and took his mouth in a hot demanding kiss while she rode him squeezing him so tight that her name rolled from his lips over and over, calling to her, his mind lost somewhere in pleasure. Finally he lapsed into a language she didn't understand continuing to shout as she rode him.

She drank it in, arching her back, taking him deeper. "More!" she told him through clenched teeth, slamming down harder still. He sat them up again, thrusting underneath her. His eyes were unfocused as they looked at her so she tangled her hands in his hair dragging his focus back to her. "Look at me, Eric!" she whispered fiercely. "Do you see me?" she demanded of him.

"All of you," he answered, his passion glazed eyes focused in on hers. She felt him sweep through the bond between them seeking to give her what she needed, if she would but name it anything could be hers as long as she kept riding him, kept loving him, kept touching him. She growled then.

"More!" she demanded again pulling him to her and biting him deeply on the neck. The second she felt his blood on her tongue she came again, this time losing her rhythm as she jerked in his arms, moaning and sucking. His blood on her tongue spoke to her like the rest of him did. In her mind as she drank she saw snowcapped mountains, and heard distant singing, she dived deeper following this thread back to him, ravenous. Taking his blood somehow only took more of her, giving him even more of herself.

When he felt her come around him and tear into his neck he had taken her hips in his hands, and continued her rhythm. He was sure that if he could hold out just a little longer he was going to explode into nothingness when he came. That he would empty all of him into her, safe inside her. He wanted to reassure her that for all he had of her she had just as much of him. He had given his blood, his cock, his protection, his promise, his bond, and still she needed more.

He roared so loud the window shook on the SUV and then he bit her, needing to taste her again, to give her his fangs, another way to be a part of her. As soon as he pierced her flesh he came inside her over and over. Another way to meet her demand, her need.

_I love you_, he sent to her in the bond as he took a mouthful of her into him. He felt her take one of him as well, and their mixed bloods sang to each other as they moved through one another's veins. She drank until he healed and he drank until he knew he should stop.

He held her to him and whispered fiercely, "Whatever happens, Sookie, I wouldn't change this, I wouldn't go back and I will never give you up. You. Are. Mine!" She leaned back in his arms and looked at.

"Yes, you _are_ mine, aren't you, Vampire?" He felt her amusement in the bond. She was so mercurial, one minute like a child laughing and giggling over MP3's, and then a crazed passionate volcano of sex or violence to only seconds later vex him with her Pixie like jokes and humor. It was almost as if-

His eyes grew wide as he looked at this woman in his arms.

"Do you see me?" she asked him again.

"All of you." He said again.

"You won't look away?"

"Never."

"It's going to get crazy before this is over."

"You mean it hasn't already?"

"Trust me, too Eric. I won't look away either." He sighed and leaned into her, closing his eyes a moment.

"When we get to Uppsala," he said. She kissed him, softly.

"When we get to Uppsala," she repeated.

They made it through the checkout and were loading the truck when she felt him behind her, sliding his arms around her and leaning down to kiss her neck.

_Almost there, _he thought to her.

_Tell me on the way why you call your ranch Uppsala?_

_Yes, Beloved._

_Hurry, I want you again before we sleep for the day. We are so close now! I can't wait._

_Me either_, he thought. He moved around and took their carts to the holding area in the parking lot, and then climbed into the truck, starting to ease out of the parking lot before beginning the tale of Uppsala, the place of the gods.


	13. Where Have You Been?

A/N – Lemons, anyone? If you proceed there will be no need for any additional vitamin c today. ")

Chapter 13- Where Have You Been?

Eric woke up first in their underground chamber at Uppsala. Sookie was curled around him from behind, her leg resting over his hip, her arm over his waist, and her hand holding his. He could feel her breathing gently onto the back of his shoulder and neck as she lay with her head on his pillow, just behind him. Her warm body pressed against him made him feel like he had been sleeping in the sun all day. He growled softly, sliding closer to her. He felt her start to awaken, and noted a change in her breathing pattern. She moaned softly and pulled him closer to her, sleepily kissing the back of neck and moving her hand from his she brought it up to caress his chest, slide up over his side and move down to his cock, already standing at attention. She stroked him a few times up and down, making him hiss, while she nipped his ear. His blood on her tongue swept them both deeper into the slow build.

She kept up her pace, squeezing the head of his shaft, then run her thumb over the leaking slit, pump him twice, and on the second down stroke squeeze the base, mimicking the actions she took when he was inside her. She was coming awake fast, and wanted to, for once, just focus on his needs.

"Do you know what you do to me when I wake up like this, you already hard and aching for me?"

"Tell me," he commanded softly as she worked him with her hand, pumping him, squeezing him at the same maddening controlled pace, over and over. He loved it when she told her how he made her feel, when she gave him the words.

"Immediately, there is an almost sharp pain in my lower stomach, like I am starving, but it's not for food. I feel myself start to get wet." She nipped his ear again, another drop of his blood, causing them both to moan. "Then a dull ache starts deep inside me, between my legs, and I know that if I can just get you deep enough inside me you would will fill up the empty aching place…" still keeping her pace steady on his shaft, her mouth moved to his neck, pausing for a deep sucking, open mouth kiss on his skin. She ground her hips against him from behind moaning, the sound and feel making him thrust harder into her hand. She was still keeping his cock prisoner, torturing him, caressing the head, pumping him twice, and squeezing at the bottom, over and over. "…and I will be whole again." He moaned again now, thrusting his cock into her hand faster, pushing her to hurry.

Shifting slightly, she brought her other arm around his head, and put her wrist in his face, rubbing it on his lips, as she whispered in his ear, "Don't come when you bite me, I need you inside me Eric to fill up that empty space. Hold on," his fangs clicked down, and he rocked his hips harder at her words, wanting to empty himself now. "Wait for me, Eric. I want you to come inside me and make me whole." All he could do was moan. She was tearing him apart. He never ever wanted her to stop.

When he bit down in her arm, her hand reflexively tightened on his cock and as her blood hit is tongue he nearly lost it. She moaned behind him, filling his ear with her hot breath, making him shiver. He was so close to letting go, he felt the pressure at the base of spine, and his balls we so tight. The ache she had described in her middle her felt now as well. So close, right on the edge...

He sucked her wrist deeply, she rubbed her breasts against his back. His sensitive flesh could feel her nipples, hard, aroused, rubbing him and the ache for release increased. He licked her wrist and then begged her to end this. "Please," he got out through his locked jaw, as he thrust into her hand.

Breaking contact for only a moment she shifted around and pushed him beneath her, keeping her wrist in his mouth. She looked into his pleasure hazed eyes as she straddled him and slid him home, all the way inside her, to the place that ached for him.

She was so ready that she only rode him a few seconds before she came hard around him. Falling forward, she landed in his neck and bit down. Eric was so over stimulated now that it had hurt him a little when he was finally inside her hot wetness. Holding onto her wrist, now sucking lightly he felt her ride him and still, his orgasm wouldn't come, not until she bit his neck. Then everything that he had been holding back at her command pushed out of him, the sounds of his pleasure, his seed, and his fangs biting her again on the wrist and drinking deeply, his words of love sent to her through the bond.

He wasn't even out of bed yet and he had already achieved everything he needed for the day.

He wanted to wake up like this for the rest of his existence.

"Love you, Eric," she whispered in his ear softly as he felt his neck close, her arms moving around him, her legs pinning him beneath her.

Yes, every day for the rest of his existence, sure that even that would never be enough.

He picked her up gently and took her down the underground hallway through an archway and into one of the many rooms that seemed to line the hallway downstairs. When they had arrived this morning there had barely been enough time to get their things in the house and get underground before the sunrise. She had wanted to stay up and work on getting things organized, he insisted she come with him.

"I have missed you, Beloved. I want you by my side as I sleep." She hadn't been hard to convince, she had missed him as well. There had been time to show her nothing other than the master bedroom downstairs, which you entered through a door in the floor that appeared when the code was entered on the keypad on the wall by the door.

When they had gone down Sookie had been noticed that the underneath was much bigger than the house above it. Uppsala was an A-Frame two story log cabin. She had gotten the barest glimpse of the actual house this morning and was very much looking forward to exploring it tonight. They had quickly changed the sheets on the bed and climbed in to snuggle as the sun rose, and they both let themselves truly relax for the first time in over three days, sleep had come quickly.

When Eric opened the door she turned her head to look in but before she could he asked her to close her eyes. A thrill of excitement ran through her. She immediately noticed a change in the temperature and she heard Eric close the door behind them. She heard the click of what she thought was a light switch and then Eric shifted her in his arms a little as she stepped up and then down and then OH! She felt something wet and warm caress her bottom and then her hips, and then her breasts.

"You can look now, Sookie." She saw that three of the walls in this room were made of stone, as if they had been carved and dug out, the fourth was tile, and held the switch she had heard. She looked down and saw she was sitting in a natural hot pool of water, the bottom and side lined with natural stone, again appearing to be carved out of the natural rock of the place. Eric set her down on her feet gently, the water coming up to just under her breasts it was so deep where they were standing.

Looking around she saw that the light switch had activated some very well positioned mood lights that lit the chamber adequately without breaking its relaxing mood. Eric moved to one side of the pool, the water level lowering some as he moved and sat down. When seated the water level stopped at the middle of his chest so it was lower on the sides she thought. Looking around again, Sookie moved to him and sat on his lap, feeling light as feather, but finding Eric, stiff as a board. With less effort than it usually took him, which was hardly any at all, he turned her so that she had her back pressed to his chest, spreading her legs and guiding himself inside her. She was still slick and sensitive from before and when he spread her open, she moaned and rocked a few times, enjoying the feel of him. She sent that feeling to him through the bond.

They both sighed contentedly, relaxing in the warm water, while she floated there above him, anchored together by his arms around her and his cock buried to the hilt inside her.

_This is home_, he thought to her. She gave him a gentles squeeze inside her and leaned back into him to kiss his cheek softly, overlaying his arms with hers where they rested under her breasts and then covering his hands with her own.

_Yes, this is home_, she agreed.

For long minutes neither said or did anything. They let the hot water wash over them, there was a small current that she could feel now, moving over their skin. They enjoyed their unhurried connection beneath the water's surface.

_Once, I was so scared of all the things you made me feel, Eric. After Dallas, and before Russell, I dreamed of you so much. If I hadn't had your blood I would have had to accept that it was because of my feelings and not the because of your blood in me. I used that as an excuse to hide. Seems like I hide a lot._

_You do what you have to do to survive, Sookie. There is no shame in that._ Her thoughts were silent for a few minutes. Then she nodded, decision made.

_I know you have seen things in my mind Eric that I have hidden from myself. I want you to show them to me. Now._ She felt him pull her tighter to his chest and kiss her neck. If he had asked her if she was sure, she would have folded. She wasn't sure, but he knew that. He could feel her hesitancy in the bond.

_Yes, Beloved. Remember I am here with you. Always._ He hugged her again, and thrust gently inside her once to remind her of their connection.

Pulling her into his mind, Eric played the times that he had visited her mind back to her, allowing her to see it as he had, but not sharing his thoughts or conclusions about the events themselves. Even if he was right about everything he was thinking, she needed to connect those dots herself.

As she watched her felt her through the bond run the gambit if emotions. Fear and shame he expected, but when she saw Tea Cup Sookie, introduce him as "Dis is my Ewic," she laughed and sobbed at the same time. The emotion she experienced was somewhere between happiness and heartbreak. He felt her recoil when Tea Cup Sookie told him of hiding from _'De Bad Man'_.

When she saw what the CIB had done to the Were following them, she was oddly not emotional at all. The bond was still there, but she felt nothing one way of the other about her actions or the event. Until they got to the end of it and for just a second, he thought he felt her disappointment at his denial of her request to kill him.

When she saw "Bill" she was still flat lining in the bond. Uncertain whether to stop or not and about to pull her out of his mind, she stopped him_. I need to finish this._ Again, no emotion. After it was over he pulled her out of his mind and waited for her to speak.

Instead, she began to rock on him gently, bringing his hands up from under her breasts to her lips. They were both pleasantly warm from sitting in the stream, and so was his cock, from him being nestled inside her for so long. All of this was a new sensation for her.

Eric felt her start to move her body on his but she was still flat lining in the bond and he could not feel her or hear her at all. He was suddenly becoming afraid that she had shut him out or that he had shown her too much. Just when he was sure he would have to stop her movements and make her talk to him she gasped and he felt a pulse in the bond. She was there, and she was trying to get back to him!

_Eric?_ He heard her call from far away.

_I am here, Beloved. I am here._ The bond jumped again.

_Oh, Eric, I feel you inside me, feels so good. Don't let me go. Make me come back to you, Eric. Make me stay and not run away until I can find the strength to do it for myself. _

_Anything. _

His hands came up then and gently cupped her breasts before rolling her nipples between his fingers. He tugged them gently and then a little harder, mimicking what he would be doing with his mouth if he were tasting them.

He was rewarded by her moaning and grinding down on him inside her, taking him deeper. He continued the nipple play, alternating and then both at the same time, then added open mouth tonguing kisses to her neck, sucking gently and then harder. All the while he thrust into and called her in mind, demanding that she return to him.

_I need you, Sookie, please. Come back here. I need you in my bed, and my life. I knew when I saw you I should have given you the bums rush out of my life, before you turned it upside down. I knew you would ruin me! You can't leave me now. Not when I am so splendidly ruined. No other can do to me what you do!_

_Tell me, what do I do Eric?_ She sounded closer now.

His body was on autopilot now, fucking her hot pussy with a growing intensity while he tortured her nipples and sucked marks onto her neck that showed her she belonged to him. He was almost out of control enough to bite her again, the perfect companion to filling her up, draining her again.

_All I can think about now is how to fill you with my cock, my fingers, my tongue. I have lost all sense of myself in seeking your warmth and for the first time in a thousand years, all I want or need is to fill…you…up and feel you come for me! Come for me now, Sookie, I demand it. Come now!_

Her screams of pleasure echoed off the curved walls as she answered his demand, coming apart completely in his arms as he commanded, feeling him follow her into release, and allowing how much she loved him to live for a moment in her mind and in the bond between them. Eric overwhelmed by the full return of her love felt it wring another orgasm from his body. He roared again feeling so much he couldn't keep it in, he didn't want to keep it. He wanted her to feel it, feel him, and know how much he needed her.

He hadn't killed her when they met, and now, it was too late and he wouldn't go back even if he could. There were miles to go, yet but the only way he was going anywhere is if she was with him.

_I waited for you a thousand years, Sookie. Where have you been?_ His head was collapsed against her back, his hands still cupping her breasts, her breathing coming back to normal slowly.

_I have always been on my way to you, Eric. Now that I am here, I find that I still have some ways to go._

_Me as well, Little One, it would seem._

_You know I won't look away? You know that, right? _

_You looked away just now, Sookie. I had to bring you back._

_Right now, Eric, you mean more to me than I do. I know that has to change, because I have nothing to offer you if I don't love myself. If I don't recognize what I am, then I am giving you nothing. What I ran from was me not you! You, I would die for you, Eric. Whatever is behind the Mask, will not scare me and I will not run._

_You have accepted me, Eric. Give me the chance to do the same for you?_

She felt him nod against her back, and softly kiss her shoulder. Then he laughed.

_Do you think we were broken for each other, Sookie or that we just got broken along the way and just happen to fit together like this so perfectly?_

_I don't really believe in coincidence, Eric, so you do the math. As long as you come up with the answer of you and me, the rest of the universe can just go fuck itself._

Not sure where this question came from, but unable to stop himself, _And if I asked you to save them all Sookie, if I asked you to die for all the people who aren't you and me?_

_Well_, she thought floating there in his arms, _I reckon I would get to dying_.

After a while they stirred themselves and dressed, going upstairs to sort through their purchases and set up Uppsala for their visit there.


	14. How Can I Help?

A/N- Thank you all, for your comments, support and PM's. I know I have spoiled you with daily updates, but real life is taking a bite out of my schedule for the next few weeks. I will update at least once per week until November 1, hopefully your emails will let you know when a new chapter is posted. Once I get through this real life stuff I will be back to immerse myself in fanfic again, it's way better anyways. Hugs to you all! J

Chapter 14 – How Can I Help?

Eric took her to the kitchen, once they had finished their soak, promising her first a meal and then a tour of Uppsala, as they put their things away. The kitchen was modern with stainless steel appliances. There was a bar with two stools that separated the kitchen from the main living room. The inside trim was pine, slightly stained, and varnished a shiny golden color that made it feel like they were outside in nature, rather than in a home.

Uppsala was a two story A-Frame log cabin with a living room ceiling that went all the way to the top of the house. There were two bedrooms and bath upstairs in loft that broke into two sections with a stair case in the middle allowing you turn either right or left once you reached the top.

Eric sat her at bar, planting a light kiss on her bare shoulder. As promised, she was missing her undergarments, but she was back in her sleeveless nightgown that she had brought from home. As he kissed her, he closed his eyes for just a moment, reverently.

Then he looked at her with the devil in his eyes and blew her away with a smile. He was shining so brightly that it scared her. She had promised not to look away, though and she wouldn't.

Finally, he moved around to the other side and started taking things out of the fridge. Looking around, he realized he was missing something, quick as a blink he was out in the living room getting something from his bag. When he zipped back Sookie could see that it was the cookbook he had been using at his house in Shreveport. _On the run for his life, and he took the time to stop and bring his cookbook for me._

She felt so much in that moment that she could not breathe. Tears slipped silently from her eyes, and she shuddered trying to handle the depth of emotion she was feeling at the moment. He suddenly turned, looking at her, concern on his face at what he was sensing from the bond. She shook her head, and tried to catch her breath.

_I'll explain, I just need a minute_. He nodded, she felt worry through the bond but he resumed gathering the ingredients and consulting his cookbook. She watched and tried to find her way through everything she was feeling, but everything he did pushed her further into a sense of panic and emotional overload. Occasionally, Eric glanced at her, but he kept moving on his task and didn't ask her any further questions.

He chopped some mushrooms, peppers, onions and strips of ham, and sautéed them in the pan. He carefully watched his timer, since he had no other way to judge readiness. Then he removed them from the pan and poured in the scrambled eggs, to which he had already added milk and shredded cheese while his veggies sautéed.

_He's making me an omelet_. _This ancient beautifully lethal killing machine, was making her, Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic fairy bar maid an omelet, in Montana,_ _in a house that was named after the sacred place of worship for his people. _

She felt her heart expand, again, this time sure it would burst into a million pieces. She would almost welcome the release from this sweet torture_. But that is not what's scaring the shit of me. What is scaring me is not the fear that I _have _this, but the fear that I am going to _lose_ it. That I will find that this is all another illusion like it was with Bill, or that after the sees me, all of me, he will realize that I am unworthy of him, of his loving me like this._

_No!_ She pushed back at that voice in her head. _No! I will not be so afraid of losing something that I won't even try and have it in the first place! Even if this turns out to be a dream, it's the best fucking dream I have ever dreamed! If only last for five minutes it will be the best five minutes I have ever had in my entire life. I won't leave this! I won't run away. I love this man, and I won't leave him until he tells me it's time for me to go!_

_Good, I am glad to know that_, she heard him as, smiling down at her, he set her plate on the bar. She leaned into him, resting her head on his chest as his arms came around her automatically.

_I guess you heard all that?_

_At least some, the rest I felt through the bond. Is it so hard to love me, Sookie? Is it so hard to love me that you have to fight with yourself so hard to just stay?_

_No! No, it's not hard to love you, it's so easy it's scary. It's scary to let myself just slide into you and not wonder what will happen if you leave me, or you find something that you don't like and realize this was a mistake. _

_You think me fickle, Sookie? Despite my bond to you?_

_No, Eric! I think it's that… I think that I am unworthy. This fear has nothing to do with you, though I shove the blame there questioning what would make you leave me, but the true driver is that I am not sure I have enough to persuade you to stay._

_Ah,_ he thought_. You mentioned that if you didn't love yourself then you had nothing to offer me._ He was quiet for a minute, and then he sat on the stool beside her and started to cut her omelet up for her, feeding her bites slowly as he had done the first night with the steak.

_Does knowing this not change it and allow you to avoid this fear and spiral_? She laughed, but there was little humor in it.

_Knowing a thing does not change it, Eric. Every time I fall into this well, I have to reason and swim my way back to you. I have to fight my way back, because right now at least, I don't know how to not get swept away_. He fell quiet again.

_How can I help, Sookie?_

_Be yourself for me, Eric. I need that most of all. You being you._

He smiled then. _You mean the Eric who came to your house to protect from werewolves and then offered you passionate primal sex?_

_Yes._

_The Eric one who tricked you into drinking his blood, after saving your life?_

_Yes._

_The Eric who locked your friend in his basement and tortured him?_

_Yes_.

_The Eric who cried in front of you at the loss of his Maker, falling to his knees and begging him to stay?_

_Yes._

_The one you saw fucking Yvetta in the basement?_

_Yes, but now he only fucks me. I will rip that cold detached mask off his goddamned face and smash it on the wall when he comes to me. I want everything. I will take nothing less and anyone who does is a fool._

_They have all been fools until you, lover._

_You asked me if I wanted all of them, Eric, all of you. I will accept nothing less than everything from you. You inspire me to slough off the shackles and rise to meet you. You command me to do it, just with your very presence. I expect no less from you._

_Some of them you hate, and would rather 'have cancer' than to have them grow on you._

_What can I say, Eric? I didn't understand then. I could childishly say that you didn't explain either, but why would you?_ He looked at her cocking a brow in question. _You are Sheriff of Area 5, Eric. You answered to the Vampire Queen of Louisiana. Why would it ever occur to you to give a flying fuck what a waitress at Merlotte's thought of you, let alone take the time to explain what you were doing to her? _She felt his shock at her thoughts through the bond.

_I am sorry if my words back then hurt you. As Russell told me, 'I didn't really know anything at all.' I am sorry that I treated you the way I did. In addition, I can only say that I will not make snap judgments before seeking to understand the reasons behind someone's actions first._

_While it is no defense, I can also tell you that I think it was my strong attraction to you and my fear of it that made it easier to always think the worst of you. A defense mechanism to keep me from hanging out at your feet while you sat enthroned at Fangtasia, like every other lowly fangbanger in the joint._

She felt amusement through the bond.

_Never at my feet, Sookie. Even the first night, the first time I saw you, I sat you at my right hand. _

_HA! I knew it! So you were always mine, weren't you Vampire? _She teased him delightedly.

_Apparently, from the moment I saw you, Fairy. _She had just taken the last bite of her omelet, so he leaned in and kissed her on the nose, teasing her.

_Had enough to eat, Beloved? If you are ready I want to give you a tour of our home_. Her heart jumped at his words.

_Why does your heart speed up when I say that, Sookie? All I am and all I have is yours. Believe this._ Forcing herself not to run and not get swept away she stepped closer to him and spoke for the first time in a while. The intimacy of telepathy was not to be underestimated but some words only held true power when spoken.

"Eric, all I am and I have is yours, as well. Believe this. I will not leave you unless you tell me to go. I swear it." She sealed her offer with a kiss.

Tackling their pile of purchases that they had stacked in the living room floor they started putting things in piles for the loft, the main floor and the underground lair. Once everything was sorted she and Eric gathered the stuff for the loft and headed up the stairs.

Entering the master bedroom, Sookie saw a huge bed with a rough log headboard. The logs that comprised the headboard still had their bark. The bed itself was covered in what appeared to be real animal furs.

There was a fire place in the corner that sat above the fireplace she had noted down in the living room below. When she looked up she saw that the steep angled ceiling over the bed had a sky light. Putting his load down on the bed Eric came up behind her and pulled her to him.

"I made this bed when I first came to Montana, in fact, I built this whole house myself."

She looked at him oddly, and for some reason he felt, lust and desire sweep through the bond. Raising an eyebrow in question all he got was an image of him naked in a tool belt, followed by more, stronger waves of lust. She was practically purring. He laughed.

"Well, it wasn't quite like that, but, if it means that much to you, I could make that fantasy come true. I do have a tool belt around here somewhere and I could be naked and looking for _something to nail_ in about two seconds." More lust came through the bond.

_Somewhere a pair of panties just rolled over in their grave_, she thought at him, unable to suppress a smile.

Eric, caught in her emotional jet stream swept her into his arms for hugs and kisses as he laughed out loud at her thoughts. _Yes, by the time I am done, all the panties in the world will have been destroyed, one nasty remark at a time. _He kissed her then, testing to see if she was willing to stop for a distraction or if this needed to build a little longer before she gave herself to him. When she pulled back and smiled at him he knew she wanted to savor the build, so he continued the tour.

Returning downstairs, they gathered up their items for the lair below and stepped through the door in the floor.

Dropping off the extra sheets and clothes in the closet, and the towels in the bathroom, he led her out into the hall and started to open doors for her.

"This, as you know already, is the hot spring." He smiled at her, and she picked up his feelings of pleasure when remembering their time there earlier. He moved on to the next door, across the hall. "This is our office. Complete satellite hookup for internet access and also for television, which is…" he paused, moving on to the next room which was on the opposite site of the hall, beside their bedroom, "used here in home theatre". Opening the door she saw a large TV that took up most of the wall, several recliners, and sofas in the room strategically placed to view the screen. "Of course there is surround sound as well." Casually placing a bag on one of the sofas he continued the tour.

Opening the door on large dojo style room she caught her breath as she looked around. Weapons of all types and ages adorned the walls. The floor was hard dark wood and positioned around the room were posts and poles for attack practice. "I use this room for sword practice myself. I find the patterns of movement calm my mind and allow me to think through problems that I am struggling with."

"When was the last time you were here, Eric?" He paused a moment and she felt a wave of loneliness come to her through bond.

"I came here for a month while you were gone. All my leads had turned up nothing, and I was…dealing with the idea that I might never see you again, it was…a difficult for me." She could feel through the bond that he had been inconsolable, and while she knew she would feel that way if she lost him now, she was more than a little surprised that he had been so devastated back then. She moved closer to him and put her arms around him, hugging tightly, lighting up a little. "Show me," she whispered her command to him.

She saw him come home from her house, still covered in cement after she threw him off her porch. He had said, "I'm sorry to see you suffer like this, but I thought you had a right to know." She remembered that she hadn't believed him at the time, but here and now reliving this memory with him she could feel the hollow ache in his chest as he remembered watching her cry. His longing to pull her into his arms and his sadness that he knew she would never let him comfort her. She saw him return to Fangtasia, and realized that Pam had been the one to save him from Bill's attempted assassination.

She saw him as he realized that he could no longer feel her in the bond, and the absolute terror he had felt at thinking she was dead. He had come back to her house that night, and searched for her until dawn. The next day, anxious he brought in his best people to search. He refused to accept she was dead, even when Bill had given up, and Pam begged him to move on. Like he told her, her first night back, they all gave up on her and he never did.

_I didn't know you loved me, then, Eric._

_I didn't either, until it was too late._

She saw his nights in her house stalking the shadows in the darkened rooms. Felt him sniff for her scent and trying to remember every detail about her. He refused to forget her, and she felt his growing anger that she had turned his whole world upside down and then disappeared.

There was so much emptiness and regret that he had not been able to explain the ruse with Edgington, or the heated kiss in his office, or the seeming betrayal of locking her in the basement. His churning emotions during the kiss made her lean more into him for support. He had been just as swept away as she had, and it was the first time he had kissed anyone since Godric died. Sookie whimpered in pain.

This was the first time since the bond that Godric had come up between them, and the intensity of his pain was overwhelming to her. He pulled her closer, and closed the bond down to prevent her from being lost in his sorrow. "I am so sorry, Sookie," he whispered, kissing the top of her head. "I didn't think how that would feel to you. I am still learning what it means to be bonded." She felt more sorrow from him at not anticipating what would happen and closing the bond down first.

_Stop, Eric. I don't want you to close the bond. Teach me how to process your emotion. Don't protect me, teach me how to be the woman you need me to be._

_You are the woman I need you to be. You always have been._ He kissed her then, demanding that she understand that no one had ever been better suited to him than she.

He opened the bond again, and for the first few minutes she felt like she had earlier in the kitchen. This feeling was too big to contain, it made it hard to breathe, so she clung to him harder and told him what she was feeling.

_When I as a little girl I used to dream that love would feel like this. I didn't know then how the shades of love would darken as I grew, but I can see now how my pretty images have become the passionate colors you use to paint me. The feeling is so intense that I_…she trailed off then, rather than hold on and let the waves crash into her, she let go of everything but Eric, sending her last conscious thought. _…I am hallowed out and all that lives in me now is you, and my love for you. Anything you need, Eric_… she thought turning into his kiss, and opening up her mind and soul to him. _…Everything you need. Tell me how I can take that pain of losing me away._

_No, this pain I will keep. It reminds me to cherish every moment with you._

In that emotional turn she saw him then, the layers of him, everything he had experienced while she was gone and it gutted her. In Dallas when she spoke of love, he had told her not use words he didn't understand. In her absence he had schooled to learn their meaning. She reached up and gently touched him.

As she touched it, her hands began to glow lavender and she felt herself become more confident as she had in her kitchen when she had challenged him about not being human. When this happened it felt like her skull went numb, and someone else was speaking through her, she knew the words, but they are not words that she would have spoken on her own without another influence.

"You hide yourself from yourself in pieces, Eric. I see Loss, Pain, Hate, Anger, Teacher, Warrior, Lover, Man, Vampire, Master, Maker, Child, Leader, Sheriff, Loneliness." She could see that there many, many more yet unnamed. "You protect yourself by only allowing one part of yourself out at any time. This is how you maintain control. This is how you live in moments stopped in time, disconnected shards of yourself to cut or savor." Sookie had been looking through him as she listed this Masks. There with him holding his hand, but somehow out of his reach.

"You cannot love in pieces, Eric. When you hate, it must be tempered with love, when you are the Master you must also be the Child. When you are Vampire you must also be Man. You have separated yourself from yourself dozens of times." She hesitated here, her tone dropping from otherworldly to Sookie again. "Can you tell me why, Eric?"

He shook his head, speechless at being so naked in her gaze. Now _he_ wanted to run, but if she could stand to see him, most of him, because he thought there were still some Masks she hadn't found yet, then he could do no less than stand before her gaze and let her judge him.

She felt his fear through the bond, and sent him back admiration for his bravery. He shook his head, denying wordlessly her praise. She was reminded of her own denial to him of his pride for saving him when she thought all she had done was risk him.

_Do not fight yourself my love, remember that I love and need all of you. _

_There are pieces you won't love, Sookie. Pieces that no one can love in me. Pieces I never want you to see._

_We won't make you, Eric. We won't make you show us, but we need you to show us soon. _Echoes of his encounter with Tea Cup Sookie.

She stopped glowing now and just wrapped her arms around him, tightly for several minutes. He let the sound of her heartbeat and her slow steady breathing calm him. She took her time knowing from having been on the other side of this deep self-exploration that what he needed was time to process.

After a long while she stepped back and looked around the room at the weapons adorning the walls. Turning to face him, with a Pixie like grin on her face, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement she asked, "So, which one of the badass swords are you going to teach me how to kick your ass with, Viking?"


	15. Who Do You Think Runs This Three Horse S

A/N- I was missing you guys. Work sucks, so I tried to run away and join the circus. I was there about five minutes before I realized that the chairs are smaller, and the lions are about the same size. So, I came home and wrote you guys a chapter. I added some citrus, and other goodies as well. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 15- Who Do You Think Runs This Three Horse Show?

Sookie ran through the dark forest, dodging between trees, and listening out for any indication that she had been found. The snow crunched under her feet, but there was no time to cover her tracks. Apparently, winter in Montana had arrived. It was barely even the November yet. As she ran she felt the sword on her back move up and down and she made a mental note to tighten the straps, just as soon as she wasn't being chased.

She dodged to her left, and took cover behind a tree, using all her senses to listen and see if anyone was around her. After just a moment she felt a void, closing from the right, at a high rate of speed. Rather than run, she drew her sword and placed the tree between her and the approaching void.

She felt the void slow and hesitate for a moment and then move forward more cautiously. _Damn, he smells me_! Not that there was anything she could do about that…or was there? She closed her eyes a moment and concentrated on masking her scent. She felt something change, and thought she might have successfully managed to do it. She opened her eyes about to move to a new location and found herself face to face with a large broadsword aimed at her throat. It's owner levitating silently a foot off the ground in front her, smiling. **_Bastard_****.**

Letting himself touchdown in front of her, Eric laughed at her new pet name for him. Bastard was what he had become as he trained her to fight. Since that first night in the training room they had expanded to outside hunting games, giving Sookie a chance to learn how to fight in different environments, while leveraging them to her advantage. She had been a fast learner. _Swordplay is like dancing_, she kept telling him, _except there is a winner! _In addition to being a fast learner, she was also exhibiting some interesting new powers, and so was he for that matter.

Eric had noticed her increased strength the night they stopped for provisions in Kalispell. At first he had thought it was due to his blood, but soon after they began sparring he found that her strength and speed were more than a side effect. She was _very_ strong, and _very_ fast. Not quite as much as him, but close enough to make him wonder what the hell was going on.

In addition to Eric gaining the telepathic ability to hear Sookie, he also had found out that he could move things with his mind, just as Sookie had and continued to demonstrate. He already knew this was more than a blood exchange. They seemed to be able to access each other's powers at will. He had never heard of anything like this before, but it was wonderful!

He wondered if before it as over if he would be shooting light balls and she would be flying, because that was about the only thing that still belonged exclusively to themselves anymore.

He was still the more competent warrior, something he teased her about mercilessly, but he knew that it was only time and experience that separated them. In time she would be a match for him, and any other as well. They had spent some time focusing on each skill individually, helping each other learn how to use one another's gifts and were now trying to learn how to integrate them into a single fighting solution to gain the advantage. So far, it was juggling chainsaws…while they were running. It was taking too much time to think about what to do, and it was not coming instinctively as it needed.

Eric believed that more practice would provide a seamless instinctive solution, but he had far more patience than his student. She had come with so much power already, and she was learning fast how to fight. It had all been so easy for her that she had become resistant to having to work at anything. She also had an explosive temper, making her vulnerable to provocation. In an effort to strengthen her Eric provoked her every chance he got. A tactic that was not without risk to himself.

More than one night he had failed to move fast enough and found her hitting him full strength with a blast of light that left him singed and responding instinctively himself, ready to escalate from training to fighting. It was in those moments that he saw the CIB in her. She wanted to hurt him and took advantage of every opportunity, every slip of rage from Sookie to give him a little taste of her anger.

As he had watched her run through the snow tonight, his first thought had been how lovely she was, her cheeks flushed, her heart racing, and then right behind that, _I am sharpening a sword here_. The CIB had been formidable when she lived in Sookie's mind, this was bringing her out into the world, giving her muscles to stretch, growing her_. I should be more afraid of that he thought_, as he closed in on her scent and her hiding place. He was looking forward to the fight when he found her. She was right, it was like dancing.

He had the drop on her, and she knew it, but she was going to fight him anyway. He admired that, another addition to a long list of things he admired about this woman in front him. As much as he wanted to pretend that he had nothing in common with the Cast Iron Bitch, he saw himself in her. Not that this made him comfortable, rather the opposite, entirely. She was part of Sookie, though, and to accept her was to accept the CIB. He still longed to know where and why she had come from, and hoped that he would one day be the possessor of that knowledge, for right now, he sought to temper her.

Blind rage would get Sookie killed, and very likely him as well, in trying to defend her. The Cast Iron Bitch was a blunt weapon, and while those could be useful at tearing things down, destruction for the sake of itself was rarely a worthy pursuit. Just as he was about to make a comment to her calling him Bastard, he saw the CIB glint in her eyes, and felt his own sword fly out of his hand, moving at incredible speed to the right, while he himself moved to the left at similar rate.

_Oh, shit!_ Suddenly she was beside him, behind him, and he could feel her pushing to slow him down. _I wasn't thinking, I can't heave you around in the woods! Any branch could stake you! Fuck, Eric!_ He felt himself slow to an almost stop and then her arms were around him, as she covered his face in kisses.

_Is this how you plan to take care of your enemy? Death by kisses? _

_Maybe._

_Gods, we have enough enemies already. If they hear that, we will be overrun with beggars for your touch._

She continued to kiss him, taking it deeper, following the bond, and seeking to reassure herself that she had not hurt him. That was the hard part of training against each other.

Several nights ago, Eric had cut her deeply while sparring. She had been in the grips of battle rage herself and despite the severity of the wound she roared more when he called a halt than she had at the wound. He had dropped his weapon immediately, re-opening the bond that had been shut down to allow for hide and seek guerilla fighting, sending her comfort and remorse at his action. Immediately, he had ripped open his wrist to feed her, heal her.

As she drank, she tasted in his blood the rage and excitement that had just lead him to try and take out his opponent. There was so much energy in her already and now in his blood. She knew the fight was over, that he would not resume tonight as was his habit when he had wounded her. As soon as his wrist had healed she had attacked his mouth, wrapping her legs around him, demanding that if he wouldn't fight her that he help her burn this energy in another way.

He had rode her until she came screaming for him three times, tearing his clothes that there had been no time to remove. She was wild and primal, and he loved her in those moments in new ways.

Eric had loved her hot and passionate, soft and tender, but wild and primal was a whole new experience. Again her increased strength, speed and stamina, pushed him. Her raw animalistic energy galvanized him, finally in an effort to give her what she needed and also to instinctively exert his dominance, he had flipped her over. He pulled her hips back to him, slamming into her again, harder and harder and she came around him again, calling to him.

He fucked her through her orgasm, baring his fangs as he maintained pace, never losing his rhythm, and savagely pounding her. Finally, when he was right on the edge of surrender himself, she had collapsed beneath him, howling through what was then her fifth or sixth release.

Pushing deep inside her one last time, grunting deep in his chest at her exertions, he filled her up, and collapsed on top of her.

When he came back to himself he had her pinned to the cold ground beneath him, unmoving. Terror and worry filled him that he had hurt her and he reached through the bond and out to her telepathically, demanding that she tell him if she was hurt.

_Love you, Eric_, was all she sent back and then she was beyond being able to hear his thoughts and project hers. He had carried her home to the hot springs and undressed her before taking her in. Once she started to warm he had fed her more blood, to heal the bruises on her flesh.

Again, his blood galvanized her, and she was moaning in his arms again, seeking to maneuver him between her legs. He knew he shouldn't but already he wanted her so bad it hurt. He felt the same from her in the bond and he couldn't make himself stop her. She slid down him and pulled his head to her neck, squeezing him inside her, as she kissed and sucked his neck, riding him. He had bit, growling his pleasure as he tasted her, not because he needed, but because he wanted her.

As he drank, Sookie had stopped riding him and was rocking gently on him, letting her internal muscles do the work of milking him, while she moaned in his ear and whispered how good it felt when he fucked her while he fed.

Her words pushed him to a place where the demands of his cock came against the needs of his fangs, and reason surrendered so they could fight it out. Soon he was pounding her mercilessly again, lost in need for her body, and her blood.

**_Told you I likes 'em bad, Eric_**. He heard her whisper in his mind, and recognition pushed him harder to master her, to own her, to show her that she was not Sookie's Master, he was. He filled her again, slamming her down to take every drop of him. She moaned her pleasure as she let her twitching pussy muscles milk him, making sure that she had everything he had to give.

**_Way better than that tight ass_**, he heard, as her head fell to his shoulder. **_Who's better, Eric me or Pixie? Its ok she's asleep you don't have to worry about hurtin' her wittle feelins_**. Eric had stilled, he had met The Pixie? When? The door had always been closed when he entered the chamber.

He heard her laugh. **_You are really are fucking dumb aren't you, vamper. Who the fuck do you think you are talking to all the time? Who the fuck do you think runs this crazy assed three horse show? _**

Too stunned to reply he had held her while she drifted off in his arms, before moving her out, drying her off and tucking her in for the day. He had lain awake for some time thinking what it meant that Pixie was who he saw every day. They still had not discussed this revelation.

In the snowy woods Sookie finally satisfied that she had not harmed him broke their kiss, but held onto him.

"We have to find another way for me to train, Eric. I know this is important, but I won't risk you anymore. I can't." He felt her determination to argue with him if he disagreed. "I can't even really let go with you, Eric, because I am so afraid that I am going to hurt you. I know you feel the same." He kissed her forehead, he couldn't disagree.

When this had started almost two weeks ago, with her asking what sword was he going to teach he how to kick his ass with, he had foolishly thought that he could teach her for a long time before she became a threat to him or anyone else.

He was ashamed that once again, she had proven he didn't know her well at all. She was born to this, and even with the new un-mastered powers she was formidable. He looked at her again, her cheeks now blazing pink in the cold of the snow covered night. They needed to get inside.

Holding his hand out, he mentally summoned his sword, replaced it in the scabbard at his side and then picked her up and flew her home to Uppsala. They showered, warming themselves in the water and with each other. He reassured her worries. _We will find a way to train you, Beloved. Let me think on it. Let us enjoy the rest of this night. I have a surprise for you!_

"A surprise?" she asked, out loud for a change. They had gotten more and more comfortable with the telepathy, now the rarely spoke at all. Something they would need to amend if they wanted to keep this ability a secret when they left the wilderness.

"Oh, yes. Go to the kitchen and make some popcorn, while I set us up." His excitement bled over to her from the bond and she wondered as she waited for the corn to pop what he had that could possibly make him too excited. What kind of films would Eric like? _Highlander? Braveheart? Rob Roy? The Fast and Furious? The Chronicles of Riddick? Jayne Eyre?_ She giggled at the last one, probably not, but that was the thing she loved about Eric, he always managed to take her some place she never would have expected to go with him.

When she got to the theatre, he was just finishing unwrapping a DVD that he pulled from the bag he had stashed here the night of their arrival. "No peeking," he told her again. After starting it, he quickly moved to sit beside her on the sofa she had selected. She had picked it not only because of its prime position for screen viewing but also because it was big enough for Eric to stretch out on later so she could snuggle him. He wasn't the only one with surprises!

When the main menu came up for Out of Africa, she stopped in the middle of shoving popcorn into her mouth, and looked at him with saucer like eyes. _How did you know?_

Taking her hand he pulled her into his mind and showed her the chamber with the doors, and walked her to one of the bookcases that stood floor to sight unseen ceiling. There she saw her books, her music her movies on the shelves and then she understood about the _Blue October_, as well as _Out of Africa_. Moved at his thoughtfulness, she asked if he had gotten any of his movies as well to share with her. _Next time_, he promised. Feeling out the bond he gave her a questioning look.

_Why so sad, lover? I thought this you liked film?_

_I do! Oh I do, Eric. I love this movie!_ She stopped then and he could hear her struggling for how to explain the emotional roller coaster that was in her heart and mind. After several minutes she, shook her head, as if to clear it and then rather than explaining asked him to start the film, so that they could truly talk about once he had seen it.

_Oh, I am assuming you have never seen it, is that right, Eric?_

_Yes, I have never seen it, but I knew the Baroness briefly in Denmark, after her return from Africa_. Sookie screamed, popcorn flying out of the bowl and into the air, as she leaped into his arms.

_What was she like? No, wait, don't tell me. Oh, God, what did she say to you? What did you say to her? No! Don't tell me. Oh…MY…GOD you met her?_

Eric, so completely bowled over by her reaction, admitted to meeting her several times and in spending some time with her one evening while she reminisced about Africa.

_OK, Ok, Stackhouse, get a grip. GET A GRIP!_

"Eric, let's watch this movie, and then I want to talk to you about all this. Ok?" Still amused by her enthusiasm he pulled her back down to his side, rescued as much of popcorn as he could pressed START on the menu.

For the next two hours he rode a rollercoaster of Sookie's emotions. Behind them all though was a sadness that Eric didn't understand. When the film ended, Sookie moved to stretch out in the sofa and he joined her there holding her close to him as she dried the last of her tears from the movie. She rested her head on his shoulder, entwining her legs with his.

"Sorry, Eric" she sniffed. "I always cry when I watch this movie." She paused, "I watch this movie when I need to cry and I can't."

"What does that mean, Sookie?"

"Sometimes, I get so bogged down in other people's emotions, their thoughts that I shut down, unplug. It's a protective reflex and it has to be pretty bad for that to happen, but it has happened before. When I unplug, I can't feel anything anymore. I need to cry, or laugh or feel something, anything, but I can't. When that happens, I have certain movies I watch to help me…get back to me." Eric thought about that for a minute and then kissed the top of head softly, while his arm pulled her closer.

"Why does this movie make you cry, Sookie?"

"Because I want to be like her, and I am not."

"Be like her how?"

"Oh, Eric, I don't know if any of that really happened in the movie or not, and really I don't think it matters. The woman in the film that is who I want to be. She didn't give a damn about what anyone thought about anything. She did what she thought was right, she took supplies to people who needed them across the wilderness. She fought a lion with a whip, Eric. She stood her ground and fought him back! She got down on her knees and begged for help for the tribe that had been on her land. Oh, she was so full of grace when she did that, Eric. And when Denys showed up and told them to let her finish…" Sookie paused here, looking for words. "He got her, Eric. The way we all want to be gotten. She had everything, she had nothing, and when I see her, I cry for her, I cry for myself."

Eric turned on his side, laying Sookie down on the couch propping himself on his elbow so he could look down into her eyes.

"Sookie, you consort with Vampires, and have effectively told your entire town to piss off, because you don't care what they think anymore. You want to be who you are, and are trying to become that person every night. You, Sookie Stackhouse have faced down the Sheriff of Area 5 **_AND_** the three thousand year old King of Mississippi, without even so much as a fucking whip!

"In Dallas, _I_ made them let you finish your plan to infiltrate The Fellowship. _I_ heard you, I _GET_ you, Sookie, the way everyone wants to be gotten. _I GET you._

"Cry for the Baroness and what she lost, if you have to but don't you dare cry for Sookie Stackhouse! She is the kind of woman that the Baroness longed to be!" Eric was speaking so passionately as he made his case that Sookie found herself lost in his gaze, feeling him drill her brain, and mug their bond to push her the sincerity of his words, to make her feel his passion, his admiration, his honesty as he revealed yet a new way to love her.

He loved her with his words.

"I always hear you, Sookie. You are **_my_** compass," he said. "I don't know that you have everything, as you say, but you have more than nothing, you have me."

"Then I have everything," she replied, pulling him down to hug his neck, and kiss his forehead. After a few moments, Eric pulled back and looked her in the eye again. "I think she would have liked you, Sookie Stackhouse. The Baroness Von Blixen, I mean. She would have seen a kindred spirit in you, and I think she would have like you very much." Sookie smiled at him, lifting her hand to his face, caressing his cheek gently.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"When in the end, the day came on which I was going away, I learned the strange learning that things can happen which we ourselves cannot possibly imagine, either beforehand, or at the time when they are taking place, or afterwards when we look back on them." – _Out of Africa_, 1937-**Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke**


	16. Do Vampires Dream of Bloody Sheep?

A/N- No matter how cute he is when he has a bad one, my Eric doesn't dream as part of his normal daily routine. Since that scene takes place after I have already skittered off the pages of canon anyway, I am ok with that change, and relieved, as I wanted to give them some tiny edge as they navigate what is to come.

As always, thank you for the comments and feedback. I appreciate your support very much!

Twenty Questions

Chapter 16- Do Vampires Dream of Bloody Sheep?

Vampires don't dream. Eric had known that for a thousand years. When he died for the day he went somewhere, but he didn't dream. After the first hundred years he even stopped wondering where the somewhere was that he went. He lay down, he died, he rose, and he lived. These were the things that mattered. What happened in between, was unknowable, and therefore of no practical use to Eric Northman.

Since Vampires do not dream, interactions with their unconscious minds were different than with a sleeping mind. Sleeping minds are filled with riotous imagery and one off glitches that require processing and filing as part of the brains constant self-care routine.

Entering into Dreamland when a person was sleeping was akin to walking into Times Square on New Year's Eve. There was a lot going on, you might or might not be seen or remembered, and anything you attempted to do would likely be erased from the chaos around you.

Vampire minds, in a resting state, are silent. There is no chaos, no competing cacophony of image and sound. When you draw the vampires resting attention, you have it all, and there is nowhere to hide.

Eric had just kissed Sookie and snuggled into her, spooning closely, and closed his eyes to die, when he found himself in what appeared to be a library. He was seated on a dark brown leather sofa, the lights were dim and across from him on a red velvet Queen Anne style chair, sat a dwarf. The walls were lined with books, but the room was not very large.

"I am the Keeper of Master's Horses." The Dwarf told him, keenly observing any and all of Eric's responses. Eric, carefully took in his surroundings and tried to understand how he was here, when he had just been in bed with Sookie, about to die for the day. Dying was always fast, it was like he closed his eyes and then he was up again. Was he still dead? Had he been taken somewhere else while he rested? Where was Sookie? He called out in the bond for her, and also reached out with his mind.

He could feel her in the bond. She was an even line, so she was resting? Was she still sleeping in his arms, at Uppsala? Or had they been separated, and he taken elsewhere to rise, with her not knowing yet? He took comfort in her calm resting state, she was safe for the moment. He focused again on The Dwarf in front of him.

"Who is your Master?" Eric asked, feeling that was more relevant than why he had horses that needed to be kept.

"Not the Master that was Yesterday, nor the one that will be Tomorrow," The Dwarf answered.

"What will bring this change?"

"Yourselves." Yourselves? Did The Dwarf mean him and Sookie?

"What does it mean to be the Keeper of The Master's Horses?" Eric tried a different tactic, pressing for information, and time to figure out where he was and how to get back to Uppsala.

"What does one do with Horses?" The Dwarf countered back. Eric's mind raced through the options. You ride them, you feed them, you rub them…? What else was there to do with a horse?

Eric's frustration was growing. He wanted to see Sookie and make sure she was ok, not play word games that seemed to go in circles. The Dwarf looked at him expectantly for a moment longer, and then his lips curled in disappointment and he shook his head.

Behind the chair where The Dwarf was seated he saw Sookie walk past. She seemed hurried and focused on her destination. Eric rose immediately to follow her, reaching out to her in the bond and with his mind, but she didn't slow and in fact soon outpaced him.

As Eric chased after Sookie he saw that the room he had been in faded away and he found himself back the Wal-Mart in Kalispell. As he hurried to catch her, he noticed in the isles of the store were filled with familiar faces. They all seemed completely unaware that he was there. He was focused on catching Sookie, but he did spare a moment to wonder why everyone he had ever known was here, and why the fuck couldn't he catch Sookie? She was fast, but she was not faster than him!

For just a moment he lost sight of her, and then he found himself at the front door of the Wal-Mart. Standing on a pier in front of the store was the Baroness von Blixen, holding open a large book in her hands. He stepped beside her, about to ask if she had seen Sookie go past here when he happened to look down at the pages of the book in her hands.

On its pages, Eric instinctively knew were the answers to every question he had ever had about anything. As he tried to read it, the words disappeared. He growled in frustration. The Baroness told him, not unsympathetically, "You will forget."

"NO!" Eric's denial thundered through the air. "I WILL REMEMBER!" She looked at him, not unkindly and shook her head as The Dwarf had done.

"Then have Sookie take you to The Library. There may be hope there."

"Hope for, what? AND WHERE THE HELL IS SOOKIE?!"

"Eric! Eric! I'm right here!" He felt her arms around him, and instinctively reached out to pull her closer. Burying his nose in her hair he took a long drag of her scent and felt himself calm down instantly. She was safe. Eric looked around and saw that they were still in their bed, in the underground chamber at Uppsala. His internal clock told him that there was still several hours to sunset, indicating that the day had passed while he was dead.

Sookie ran her fingers through his hair and looked at him with concern. "Eric, were you dreaming?"

"Vampires don't dream, Sookie," was his automatic response, and then he considered what had happened. What else would you call it?

"Then what happened, Eric?" The feeling of relief that he had, to have her in arms, unharmed was so tremendous that he didn't answer her immediately. Instead he snuggled her closer, taking in more of her scent, and running his hands over her. Verifying not only the reality of her, but the fact that she was unharmed in any way. She only smelled of him, and Uppsala. They had been nowhere else, all day.

Eric pulled her into his mind and showed her what had happened. After he finished he opened his eyes and looked into hers. "Was that a dream, Sookie? The way you dream?"

"Yes, and no," she looked into his eyes. "The lack of logic to questions, answers, places, actions that is consistent, but the clarity! No, I never have dreams that are that clear and vivid. You had a cable connection, I usually have to climb on the roof and move the antenna to even get a snowy picture." Eric smiled at her visual comparison.

"Did you dream today, Sookie?" She nodded, settling her back to his chest, wanting to be closer to him, just because it made her feel good. "Can you remember any of it? Can you show me?" She nodded again, threading her fingers through his and pulling him into her mind.

The images were strange and fuzzy as she had warned. She was standing on her front porch, and Eric was there in the yard, walking toward her. Suddenly the ground had split apart, and fire had leaped up from the crack in the ground. Eric jumped back to avoid being burned and Sookie screamed his name, it sounded like her heart was breaking as she called to him.

Eric saw himself rise from the ground and try to get around the flames, but no matter how high he flew the flames just rose up, too. It ran as far as he could see, so he could not go over and he could not go around. He was standing in her yard, blood tears running down his face, while she cried for him on the porch. Someone said, _"The ties that bind are also the ties that separate. This changes nothing." _

Feeling her through the bond as she remembered him not being able to get to her was painful for him. He pulled her tighter to his chest. Coming back to themselves he asked if she knew what the voice had meant. _No_, she thought to him. _It felt like I lost you, Eric. You couldn't get to me, and I didn't think that you would ever be able to get to me, again. _ She paused there_. I think I woke up before I did something really bad in my dream. I think if I lost you, it would be very bad. I would be very bad._

_Shh_, he consoled her_, I will never leave you, Sookie. You don't need to even think about it. You know you are stuck with me, right?_ He kissed her hair again, and ran his hands up and down her arms to warm her, and take away the gooseflesh he had seen rise there as she whispered to his mind her fear of losing him. He suppressed his own fear, wanting to be reassuring to her. The truth was though, these were more than dreams. First because vampires don't dream, and second because his gut told him so.

_Sookie, the Baroness said you knew about The Library. Do you know what she meant?_

_Yes, I think I do_. Eric felt her uncertainty in the bond. He waited patiently for her to decide whether or not to go on_. I used to have Dreams when I was a little girl Eric. I tried to talk to my Mom about them once, but she wouldn't listen. She thought I was making it up and told me that bad things happened to girls who fibbed and told lies._ Sookie stopped there, turning into Eric's chest even more and burying her face in his neck. He could feel her tears, on his flesh before she started shaking in his arms.

_What, Beloved? Tell me, please._ He kissed her forehead over and over and rubbed her back to calm her.

_I haven't been to The Library in a long time, Eric. We remember the way, only together._

Eric, let that sink in a minute. We remember the way only together.

_Does that mean that in order to remember how to get there, it will take all three of you?_ Sookie nodded. They had not discussed The Child, The Pixie and The Cast Iron Bitch before, but she had seen the doors in his memories, and his interactions with them up to that point, She was now consciously aware of what she had hidden from herself before, at least in part. _Can you do it, Sookie? Can you bring yourself together to remember the way?_

_Is it important, Eric? Will it help keep you safe_? He looked at her, this strangely odd and wonderful woman in his arms and kissed her softly on the lips.

_I think it will keep us all safe, Beloved_. She nodded, sniffing a little, and then she spoke for the first time in a long while.

"I need to eat something, Eric. Then I want to make love to you, to feed you, to feel close to you, and then we will go to The Library." She stopped for a minute and then looked at him with older and wiser eyes than he had ever seen her have before. "It's a long way, Eric. Are you sure?"

He wanted to sound sure, he wanted to play the Knight for her and protect her, but the truth was, he was on new ground here. He knew how to handle vampires, what motivated them, what moves he could expect when dealing with them. Were's were also a known quantity. In fact, there was not much in this world that he had not met, mastered and conquered. Possibly, with the exception of the small woman who sat here with him.

Eric had told her after the shower where they had seen themselves over and over that he had spent some time studying parallel worlds, alternate realities and the like. He had in fact skimmed over his interest, feeling insecure in his knowledge, his thoughts and conclusions at the time. He still felt that way now. The truth was though, that his interest was in the fact that if they did exist, perhaps there was something new under their suns, something that had he not found, and mastered already. Something that inspired him to embrace life again and wake up to the possibility of not knowing every answer before the question was even asked in the first place.

That there was some meaning to all things that he had yet to discern. The pursuit of that meaning had become even more important with the loss of Godric. The physical need to pull back the cover and see the inner workings of things. To understand that patterns that ebb and flow around us, to look into The Abyss and let the fucker look into you, as long as it told you something that you didn't know for your trouble.

"No," he replied sighing and taking her hand. "I am not sure of anything at this point, and it makes me uncomfortable and a little angry. Being uncertain is not something I am accustomed to feeling." She nodded, threading her fingers through his.

"Is that because you don't know which self to be? Which Mask to wear?" He nodded. This was the first time she had brought this up since the afternoon in the training room. "I suspect that where we are going, you will need all yourselves, Eric, same as me." He thought again of The Dwarf.

_"What will bring this change?"_

_"Yourselves." _

"What's in The Library, Sookie?"

"Books. All the books ever created, and the ones yet to be made."

"What does that mean?" he asked her, exasperated that now she was dodging his questions. Clearly she knew more, and clearly she was not coming up off it any more than The Dwarf or The Baroness had.

"I-…I don't remember, Eric. I think I knew once, but now it's no more than words to me either. Perhaps, we will find out together?" He nodded.

Upstairs, Sookie made a sandwich. They were nearly out of human food supplies which meant that soon they were headed back to Kalispell, if they were going to be staying here longer anyway.

She joined him in their office while she finished her meal and watched him log into Facebook. She giggled behind him as he posted an update on his status, noting that his name was Holly G. Lightly, and he was a twenty-one year old college grad touring Europe, keeping in touch as he traveled around. Her most recent stop was in Uppsala, Sweden, where she had been hanging for the last 2 weeks, partying with her friends and learning about Swedish culture.

Back home her friend Alice W. Hare commented on her updates every few days.

"This is how Pam and I keep in touch."

"Cleverpuss," she praised him as she slid around into his lap forcing him to tilt his head around to see the screen and to reach his arms around her body to type. She laid her head back on his shoulder and started nibbling on his neck, alternating baby kisses between nibbles. She shifted in his lap, to take advantage of the hardness she felt now beneath her bottom.

He made the SAS, and kept typing, though he did tilt his head to give her better access to his neck. She continued to moving in lap, lining up all the right places, and enjoying feeling his need for build in the bond. Finally, when he was done typing she stood and took his hand, leading him to their bedroom. She removed his jeans, and laid he face down on the bed. Removing her own clothes she sat astride his hips, leaning down and rubbing his shoulders, massaging his neck with her hands, as she hummed a soft tune for him.

Slowly, starting at the top she worked down his back, massaging him with her hands, placing a reverent kiss on each area of his body before moving on to the next muscle group. She kissed him between his shoulders, at the base of his spine, one for each of this very fine butt cheeks, smirking to herself as she worshipped that part of him. She kissed the back of each knee, running her hands up his long thighs, slowly warming his skin from the friction she created. The last thing she kissed was the soles of his feet. He jerked a little, and giggled. Yes, giggled. She looked up at him, not quite believing that sound had come from this huge man laying before her.

"It tickles," he said by way of explanation, offering her a shy boyish grin with his confession. Her heart sped up, seeing him like that. She wanted to twine her fingers in his hair and kiss him until he forgot who he was. Then he could just be hers, forever. She sighed at the thought, and realized that she wanted all of him, still. As she had said. The glimpse of the boy she had just seen was beautiful beyond words, but he was only a small piece of the man she wanted, the man she needed, the man she loved.

_Roll over, please. _He rumbled for her again, deep in his chest, as he complied. When she heard that sound, it made her go gooey inside. She sat at the foot of the bed and admired him for a long time, rubbing his foot gently, not tickling him, but wanting to maintain contact as she drank in the appearance of him there, in her bed, aroused and waiting for her.

Finally she moved, massaging his feet, she kissed them each on the top as she had on the bottom, and then moved up his calves to his knees. When she got to his thighs, again she ran her hands up and down, warming him with the friction. She leaned forward and kissed his shaft, before taking the tip of him into her mouth, tonguing the head of him first and then the shaft, sucking gently.

Her hands rested flat on his hips as she worked the head of his cock, moaning at good he tasted, how good felt in her mouth, how her need for him had escalated to the point that she was dripping on the sheets. The scent of her arousal caused Eric to start taking deeper breaths, and to moan for her as his need increased.

Her mouth was full of him, but she reached out with her mind. _I love seeing you like this, Eric. Laid out before me like a banquet of all my favorite dishes, seeing you writhe from my touch. I especially like it when I touch you, and you make those sounds. _

_What sounds, lover?_ His fists clenched in the sheets again, as he tried to not thrust his hips. What she was doing was exquisite torture, he didn't want her to stop, but the need to bury himself inside her and fill her with his seed in any way he could was nearly over taking him.

_The ones that make me feel like I am doing something so right that surely no other woman has ever touched you like this before. That I know all the secret footpaths of your heart, and can show you things that even you have not dreamed of inside yourself. Those sounds, _lover_._ He moaned again at her use of his pet name for her.

_Let go, Eric. I want to pleasure you now, because what I have in mind is going to take a while. I need to know that I loved you well, first._ She moved her mouth now with more purpose, pumping up and down on his shaft. His hips thrust mindlessly now, as she worked him, begging him to come for her. _Please, Eric. I want to taste you so baaad…._

Her voice in mind, her mouth on his cock were too much. He lost it. He screamed her name as he filled her, and she sent him love through the bond as she licked him clean. S_o good, Eric._ "Mmmmmmm," she moaned in her throat as she finished licking him clean. He was already hard again from her efforts.

She slid up his body now, kissing his belly button, rubbing his chest with her hands, letting her mouth follow where her hands had already been. She pulled his hands up and kissed each on, palm and then back before placing them on breasts. He cupped them and tweaked her nipples with his thumbs. It was her turn to moan.

_Let me in, lover_, he sent her. _I want you to ride me like this until you come for me, I want to see your face as I pleasure you. Will you open for me, lover? Will you take me in?_ She growled now. His words in her mind stronger than anything else to her in that moment.

She opened her legs and slid him home, taking him easily she was so aroused. She moved on him for brief moment, feeling him fill her up, touch the bottom of her, and then a slight stinging that accompanied his entry into her body. It burned, so she shifted atop him, rubbing him on her inner walls, attempting to put the fire out or maybe build it higher. She no longer knew.

Her shifting on him, rubbing him this way, clenching him with her internal muscles was so slow and intense that he nearly came inside her again, as she worked to place him where she needed him the most. She wanted to find the angle that allowed him to touch all her secret inner places at once.

Finally, she found it. Sighing she said, "There, lover. Don't move now, let me do it all. You just need to stay perfectly still." She clenched herself around him then, and groaned as her inner muscles milked him, she shifted slightly, barely moving outside at all as her internal muscles stroked him. She came there on him, telling him how good he felt inside her as she let the orgasm sweep through her from head to toe. _Love you_, she chanted in her mind, and with her lips.

He watched her, hypnotized. With his vampire vision he saw her skin flush as thousands of blood vessels expanded beneath her skin when she peaked. Her head thrown back in ecstasy as she fought to hold onto him, to hold still while he was ravaged by her orgasm. She had found exactly where she wanted him to be inside her, and she was not about to let him go, too soon.

Eric was shaking with his own intense need, now. Seeing her, hearing her, feeling her, was causing a deep pain in his side as he held back his own orgasm. He was panting, though he needed no breath, trying to concentrate on his breathing rather than his aching need to split her open and just cover her in his semen.

He felt her reach out through the bond and pull some of that away from him, taking it herself, making it bearable to hold on longer, while she continued to hold him locked insider her this way. She shivered from his desire, and felt her grow even wetter than she had been before.

_Needyouneedyouneedyouneedyouneedyouloveyouloveyoul oveyouloveyou_

It was all she was capable of sending now that she had taken the burden of desire for both of them. Rather than suppress it, she let herself climax, and she came around him again, he moaned and fought to stay still. These feelings she had created in him with what she was doing were so intense that he felt exposed and raw, and completely out of control. Normally he was pounding into her fighting to get deeper. Now he lay inside, her coiled around him and rubbing him so slowly and intimately she was peeling his sanity back one layer at a time.

How could she stand it? Gods, how could he?

Still holding him tight inside her, she leaned down now, laying herself on his chest. The change in her angle changed his position inside her and she gasped, her face sliding into ecstasy as she felt him in this new way. Tremors ran through her, and she whispered his name a prayer as she sought to tame her desire again.

This time, he rescued her through the bond, absorbing her need. It overwhelmed his control and he filled her with this seed while she continued to hold him inside. His cool offering allowing her a moments respite from the heat inside her, the ache in her muscles as she massaged him inside her, slowly, perfectly, barely moving on the outside at all, while inside the worked him over and over again. He was still hard.

She placed her mouth on his skin and kissed him softly, whispering, "I love you," after each kiss. She mapped him this way, his head, his face, his shoulders, his mouth, sailing all the way to the edge of his sea blue eyes, while she somehow managed to squeeze him tighter, harder, to rub him in just the right way until he was shaking beneath her, coming apart. Not enough friction for release, but too much to pressure to let him retain his sanity.

Never in a thousand years had he been loved like this.

He wanted to last for another thousand at least.

She tilted her head then, bringing his mouth to her neck, sending him love and caring as she offered to feed him.

_I can't, Sookie_. His mental voice sounded strangled with the passion she would not give him just enough pressure to release. _It's too much. I might go too far_.

_No_, she told him, squeezing him slowly inside her. _You won't. I trust you, Eric_. He moaned, his last thought being he hoped she was right and then he sank his fangs into her.

Her blood rolled over his tongue as her hips relaxed and began to roll over his providing that much needed friction at long last. He filled her as she filled him. He growled and pulled her closer, sucking deeply from her neck, pressing deeply between her thighs.

She came for him again, too then, as he took his fill of her. He drank deep and long and when he was finally able to make himself stop he ripped open his wrist to feed her. She took several long pulls, her eyes rolling back in her head and then she let his wrist heal.

They stayed there for a while reassuring each other that they had just experienced had been real.

_Was it really, good, Eric?_ The shyness in her tone cutting a piece of flesh from his dead heart.

_Why do you worry, Beloved? Could you not feel what you were doing to me?_

She nodded_. Sometimes I think that there is nothing I can do for you that hasn't already been done a thousand times, by someone else. How can I can I please you? Anything I do you have had done by others. Others who were probably better at it than me._

_Sookie, if I gave you a rose, and some guy you met tonight in a bar gave you a car, which would mean more to you?_

_The rose._

_Why?_

_Because it came from you_. He smiled.

_You are very lucky, Beloved, in that you have never experienced sex without love. Each time you have engaged in physical pleasure you have had an emotional attachment of some kind to your partner. That produces a very different experience than you might have with someone you cared nothing for, no matter what they were doing to your body._

_You are not only the queen of my heart, Miss Stackhouse, you also have one damned fine imagination! Even if we had another thousand years together, I don't think you would ever run out of ways to please and surprise me!_ She smiled at him, thinking for the first time that maybe she had been lucky after all, with this at least.

Seeing her smile, he gently laid her on the bed, spooning her from behind as she slid as close to him as she could get. She took both of his hands in hers, pulling his arms around her, his body around hers. She laced her fingers with his and pulled him into her mind.

It was time to go to The Library.


	17. Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Chapter 17- Should I Stay or Should I Go?

When Eric slipped into her mind he felt the usual tingle of energy. When he opened his eyes he saw an unusual sight. Sookie surrounded him. To his left stood The Cast Iron Bitch, easily identified by her cold eyes and feral smile. To his right was Tea Cup Sookie, clutching her stuffed turtle, and in front of him was what must be The Pixie. He looked at her closely and saw in her eyes the warmth, love and laughter that he had come to count on from his Sookie.

_Perhaps the CIB was right, Pixie did run this three ring horseshow._

Pixie and Tea Cup Sookie rushed him then, one attaching herself to his leg and the other leaping into his arms, kissing him soundly before mock biting his nose and jumping from his arms, to somersault back, landing several feet away from him, giggling, a look of devil may care in her eyes.

From his left Eric heard**, "Oh, fuck me, really? It's a goddamned fanger, what's the big fucking deal?" **

Tea Cup Sookie pulled his sleeve, bringing his face down to her level, where she planted one on his cheek and hugged his neck. She looked at the CIB frowning and said very clearly, "Dis is MY, Ewic! Don't you be mean to him!" He glanced at the CIB and saw her look at Tea Cup Sookie in much the way a stern mother would when she thought her child had done something wrong.

"See," Pixie began, as she walked toward him again, some playful sway in her hips and a smile hiding and seeking on her lips, "We don't play well, together." She stopped in front of him, looking up into his eyes. He knew her, but she was not his Sookie. She was only a part of her. As he looked around the circle of Sookie he saw part of her in all of them, but his Sookie, she was all of them. Trying to imagine the ebb and flow of how a woman in pieces could shift and move between forms, and thoughts, reflecting and deflecting like jewel facets in sunlight, he wondered again how this had happened to her?

**"You don't ****_really_**** give a shit, fanger. I know it, and soon enough they will, too. You don't fucking fool me." **

"I mean it!" Tea Cup said, stamping her foot and glaring at the CIB. "Don't you be mean ta him!"

"Yes," Pixie chimed in, bringing his gaze back to her, "Do be civil."

**"What. The. Fuck. Ever!"**

Tea Cup pulled his sleeve again, and lifted her arms up to him indicating that she wanted to be picked up. He obliged, planting a big kiss on her tiny cheek, initiating a wave of giggles from her. After settling her on his hip, he looked at all three faces before him and for just a moment he thought of the ancient tale of Perseus, as he stood before the Stygian Witches. He felt Sookie's love, in the bond and in her mind, but there was something else, too. Something that was just beneath the surface of her mind that made him think that one wrong step and he might fall off the edge of her.

"Ewic, you weally want us to take you to De Library?" She asked from his arms, as she played with his hair and smiled at him adoringly. He nodded.

**"Why, Fanger? I ain't sold on the ****_why_****, yet**."

"Because, The Baroness said there was hope there."

**"Hope for what, fanger?"** Eric, hesitated.

"For me to remember," he answered, not sure even himself what that meant. The CIB, scoffed at him.

**"As usual not a fucking clue. I ain't going unless this dipshit can figure out why,"** she proclaimed looking at Pixie and Tea Cup, crossing her arms in front of her.

"I'm goin'!" Tea Cup declared, glaring at the CIB and then turning to look at Pixie expectantly. Pixie stepped closer and took his hand.

"Eric, are you sure you understand what you are asking? Passage to The Library is difficult even at the best of times, and we would not be alone. We would likely not be safe." She stopped and looked at him.

Eric, listened to her, feeling her anxiety mount with each word, but having no way to understand anything other than that she was scared, it impacted his need to GO to MOVE to KNOW very little. People were often scared of the unknown, simply because it was UNKNOWN.

He was intrigued. Squeezing Pixie's hand gently, he asked her and Tea Cup why they were so scared. Tea Cup hugged him, and Pixie looked at him like she was starting to think the CIB was right, he was dumb. "We worry for _you_, Viking. This road we have traveled, long ago, many times, and we know all the secret doors, but we doubt that _you_ are prepared."

"Prepared how?" He felt her hesitate, uncertain.

"You have not reconciled yourself to yourself, Viking. This weakens you. Also, with so many Masks that look like you, there is a chance that one might fall into the wrong hands and trick us. In these places, there are things with no face, or many faces and they seek one such as yourself to add to their collection. Where you go, your Masks go, too. We could lose you, and now know until it was too late.

"You have yet to show us your True Face.

"Reconsider, this trip now, Eric. Let us remain at Uppsala and be with you. Our love for you and yours for us is a great healing boon. Given time, we would all be stronger for this journey, and be at less risk." When he didn't speak right away, she continued. "Is the need to go so urgent, Eric, that thoughts for safety must take a back seat?"

"Can you tell me anything about The Dwarf, the Baroness or the Master?"

"Yes," was the answer from all three in unison.

"What do you know?" he finally prompted them when they didn't' speak again right away.

"One is a Liar, one is a Fool, and one you will face before your journey ends."

"And what is it that I need to remember?"

"Which one is which, Viking."

"So, once I knew this?" The three nodded in unison. "And if I do not remember?"

"Then you will be deceived, fooled, and this existence will end."

"What are my options at this point?"

"Go now. Go later."

"So, I go and my only real choice is when?" They nodded in unison again.

"Pixie will cast the deciding vote for us, based on your wishes. Choose." As before they all spoke in unison.

"What of you, Sookie? If something happens to me, what of you, all of you?" Continuing in unison, all of her answered.

"The answer to that is in flux. The only certainty is what I have told before. 'All that I have and everything that I am is yours. I will not leave until you tell me to go.'" He felt her love for him flood through the bond then and swept him away and anchored him at the same time.

"Pixie, do you not wish to go now?" he asked her softly. The others had voted already and she was explaining things to him, but he didn't know if that was because she wanted him to stay here or to be fully aware of what they were getting into before he decided. "Would you rather wait, Pixie?" She sighed and smiled sadly at him.

"Yes, but I would wait forever, and spend each day with you, Eric. These things that move around us now, they will follow us. They know where we are now. In time, we will see and know that everything we have ever done has been leading us first to each other and then to this, and further yet still.

"So many set themselves against us. We were never supposed to get this far, Viking. I am so grateful that we have, and that it was you to stand beside me." She smiled then, radiant and perfect before him. He felt her words more than heard them. They resonated with truth.

"Who has set themselves against us, Sookie? What do you mean?" She looked at him now, thoughtfully.

"You were born a thousand years before me, still we found each other, but to make that happen, you had to become Vampire.

"I met someone who would _from the beginning_ fill me with distrust of you. Did you miss the irony that he _took_ me _to_ you so that he could _point at you directly and tell me that you were untrustworthy_?

"Oh, but once I saw you my love, there was nothing else. I wanted you and no voice in my ear could override what my heart and very being told me to be true.

"Then you _Vampire_ and me _Fairy,_ enemies of old, time immemorial, still we love. Still there is only us.

"They aren't done yet, Eric. For all that trouble, surely your mind can see that as well."

He stood there before her beautiful splintered soul and realized that in the patterns around them, while randomness seemed to drive all of it, that actually it was an intricately woven pattern of planning and execution that started when…had always been? Another realization came to him, and it was almost more than he could ask.

"Is this why you are broken into pieces, Sookie? Was something done to you that resulted in this fracturing of yourself to keep us apart?"

**"Holy fuck! It's like he finally got his head in the goddamned game! If you keep swinging vamper you might just get one out of the fucking park before I die of boredom over here!"** Ignoring the CIB completely, Eric looked at Pixie, begging her with his eyes to tell him what happened.

"We are not ready, yet, Eric. Take comfort in knowing that your love has gotten us closer than we ever thought we would be to facing this, to healing from this.

"Understand that some do not wish us healed. I suspect they attempt to lure us out before we consolidate our power, and become a more formidable adversary.

"While we wait, though now that we have been found, they too grow in power. Either choice is not without risk.

"Choose now, Eric, wait or go?"

"Go." His answer echoed around them, and he felt Tea Cup jerk in his arms, as he saw Pixie jerk as well. The CIB filled the room with maniacal cold laughter.

**"Brilliant, fanger. Fucking brilliant!"** He said nothing to any of them, waiting to see what came next.

Pixie stepped back and held out each of her hands. Tea Cup kissed his cheek one last time and wiggled indicated she wanted down. When her feet touched the floor she ran to Pixie and took her right hand. They both turned to the CIB and looked at her expectantly.

**"You have GOT to be fucking kiddin' me! We know what happened the last time we tried this, we wound up like this! What THE fuck is gonna happen to us if we do this again? Are ya'll outta yer fuckin' minds or what?"** The whole time she was bitching the CIB was moving toward Pixie, slowly, reluctantly, but still moving. **"Let me kill him now and save us this trouble! Come the fuck on, ya'll!" **

Eric felt rage spike through the bond at the suggestion to kill him and she saw Pixie and Tea Cup glare at the CIB. In unison the two of them told her, "You will protect him, as you protect us on this journey. You will ensure no harm comes to him. We will die for him if needed, do you understand?" Their united voices were very loud, and when he looked at the CIB he saw tears in her eyes, and felt the rage in her heart, aimed at him.

**"Understood,"** through a clenched jaw was all she said.

As soon as she took Pixie's hand a lavender glow began to grow around them, blinding Eric. It passed quickly and in place of three there was one. Unsure what came next, Eric stood there a moment and looked at The Morrighan in front of him. _Three goddesses in one, like the legend of old_. He was in awe.

Before he realized what was happening he felt her push him out of her mind, and when he opened his eyes he saw her, still in his arms, looking at him, smiling slightly, a little sadly. He looked deep into her eyes and pressed the bond for answers.

"Are you all right? Are all of you all right?" he asked softly. She scoffed, and then her expression changed quickly from contempt to calm.

"There will be some adjustment, we are not used to this state, and we are not ready for it. We will try and keep ourselves together long enough to get you to there and back."

"Do you remember the way now, Sookie? Do you know how to get us there?" She nodded.

"As you said when all this started, finding advantage in disadvantage is key to survival. When it came to be that I would be born in the race of your mortal enemy the advantage was that the Fae can walk between the worlds. It was a greater advantage than they realized, and I was caught out as a child, before I understood even what I was doing." A shadow crossed her face now, and she stopped. "Let's talk about it later, ok? If you are set to go, we need to move quickly. I don't know how long we can do this." As she spoke a pained expression passed over her face.

"What's wrong, Beloved?"

"She hates you, Eric."

"Why?" he asked incredulous, he had never hurt her.

"She Protects, Eric. Her function is to remind us of the threats to kill your accountant if he had taken the money that you tortured Lafayette that you lied in Dallas to get us to drink your blood, and that you told us we meant nothing to you in Jackson. That you fed us to Russell and offered us as his slave in return for your life." Sookie's voice got quieter and quieter as she listed all his sleights and betrayals that fed the anger of the CIB.

"But you know, Sookie- " she cut him off.

"Yes, parts of me know and parts of me have accepted, Eric, but it is not her function to know and accept. It is her function to Protect, above all things. Two to one we can direct and control her, to some degree, but our hold is fragile, and her anger is great."

"What can I do, Sookie?" he took her arms in his hands, ready to offer anything and everything she needed.

"Be you, Eric, like I told you. Hide nothing from us. Let us see you all, and when we know the truth of you, totally, completely, then she will see that there is no need of Protection from you."

"This is why you have all asked me to take off my Mask?" he confirmed, realizing at last why this request was indeed important to all of them. Should he change his plan to go now and spend more time taking his Masks off, and reassuring her?

She nodded, "Yes, to trust you, to know you, all of you would help us to trust each other inside."

"An important step in coming together, right, Sookie?" She nodded again. Eric needed to think, he had learned so much in a short while that he needed time to process and figure out what actually happening. He had to factor in though that the main reason he had learned so much was that she was together now, and if he delayed the trip to The Library she might not see the need to stay that way any longer.

She had said this was coming to them, no matter what they did. Facing it now could be too soon. Years of battle strategy had taught him that while you should never run from an enemy, you should also not pick fights that weren't necessary.

If what he was being told was true then this one was necessary, but no one had thrown a punch at him yet, so if he charged into The Library now would he be opening the fight and showing his strengths and weaknesses, too soon?

"Sookie, you have been to this place before, yes?" She nodded. "Can you show me what you remember of the journey and the place itself? It might be safer than going there right now, but it could also yield some important information."

"Yes, now we remember." He took her hand, slipped back into her mind, and commanded her to show him. He wanted to smell her memories.


	18. Who Plays These Changes?

Thank you all so much for the comments and feedback on this story. Even those who aren't sure if they like it find it thought provoking! That is the greatest compliment that I could ever hope for with my writing, to engage the mind, and or to move the soul.

Some of you may have noticed the new story icon. I found it the other day quite by accident and the light in his hands reminded me of the story.

I miss having time to write for you guys every day. Hopefully back at it post 11/1 when work returns to a small life sucking leech instead of the giant it is right now.

Hugs to you all. Have a great Monday!

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**Chapter 18- Who Plays These Changes?**

As Eric slid into her mind, he noticed that things were different. There was no chamber, and no doors any longer. Perhaps this change was due to her unification? Instead, he was there in the memory observing as part of the scenery.

Tea Cup Sookie's mother was putting her to bed, and he heard her thoughts from Sookie hearing them_. God, why is my baby a freak? What did I do to deserve this? How I am supposed to hold my head up in town around decent folks after she has one of her spells? Oh, God please help me. _Tea Cup Sookie seemed to only understand that her mother was sad, scared and angry and that it was her fault. Eric felt that through the bond, and it broke his heart, and it made him angry, furious in fact. He felt his Sookie send him calm and warmth through their bond. _Shhh, Eric, it's ok. I love you, and this was long ago. Don't let the pain of the past blind you from seeing what you came here to see, _she whispered in his mind. He instantly felt better and worse at the same time.

When her mother left, he watched Tea Cup wipe the lonely tear from her face, and then take a deep breath. She scrunched her face up, and he could hear her over and over, begging someone, anyone, and everyone, to help her be better so that her mama could love her. So that he mama could be happy. _Please, let me mama love me again!_

As Sookie prayed, Eric saw her start to glow, familiar lavender light covered her little body. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of a library. _The Library_, Eric corrected. He focused on looking around and what he saw at first was a room that seemed to have no walls or boundaries, with shelves that ran out of sight when you looked upward and tried to follow the row to the end. They ran diagonal to each other and met in the center in a circular pattern. Eric noted that there were twelve rows that led out from the center.

In the center was a large dark leather chair, and in front of it were two large dark leather sofas that faced each other, one to the left and one to the right of the chair. Above the seating area hung a large crystal chandelier that gave off soft light, making the setting seem intimate despite the seemingly infinite space all around it. The shelves of books were also illuminated but from no source that Eric could easily discern. The floor was black and white tiled again, like the floor of her mind chamber had been.

As Eric looked around, he thought for just a second her saw something else. He thought he saw a different place entirely around them. White walls, bright lights, computers, all there and then gone in a flash, his vision returning him to the leather and endless shelves. He did note that where one of the computers had been was small writing desk, with a chair. Dismissing that for now, he turned to locate Sookie.

She was standing in the center of The Library, before the large chair, looking around with wide eyes. To the right of Eric, from between the shelves came a figure. Eric, forgetting he was only a spectator here, moved between the man and Sookie, wanting to protect her from this unknown menace. The man moved right through Eric, as though he wasn't there, because he wasn't there. He sighed in exasperation and felt Sookie hug him again in the bond. _Hold on my love_, she whispered and once again he forced himself to calm down and focus.

"Who are you," Tea Cup Sookie asked him, not rudely, but with no fear in her voice either. Eric's heart ached with love for her, as she faced this unknown man bravely. He kneeled down at her feet, the light falling on him and Eric got his first look at this stranger.

His garments were loose and flowing, not unlike the kind of clothing that Godric had favored. His hair was short and dark as were his eyes, but they had a warmth in them that Sookie recognized immediately when she looked into them. He was of an average height and average build and seemed average in every way, but he didn't feel average. To Sookie, he felt strong and safe, to Eric's older and wiser eyes he seemed as powerful and dangerous as he was unknown.

When Sookie moved closer again he wanted to protect her, and when he heard the reply to her query he wanted to scoop her up and run, but this was all so long ago, and he was so powerless that it sparked his anger again.

"Sookie, you can call me Mr. Jones. Welcome to The Library." She smiled and moved closer to him. The scenery around Eric changed.

Now Tea Cup sat in Mr. Jones' lap while he told her story. Her pajamas were different which helped him conclude that this was a different night "What shall it be tonight, Little One? Shall I tell you of Fae and the creatures who live there? Shall I tell you of things to come or things that have happened?" His manner with her was like that of a doting father, very warm and she responded to him in the same way, completely at ease and comfortable.

"Tell me 'bout de Vikin's! Tell me 'bout Ewic! Please!" _Huh? He told her stories about me?_

"Where did we leave off last time?" Jones asked her indulgently.

"Ummm," she said, scrunching up her face thinking back, "Somefin' bad had just happened to Ewic's fambly, and he was about to go to war. What happens next?" Jones looked directly at where Eric was standing, as though he could see him, locking eyes with Eric, he asked her why she wanted to hear about Eric the Viking.

"'Cause, he's MY Ewic."

"What does that mean, Little One?" Jones pressed her for more.

"Someday, when we meet, I will love him," she answered him as though it were so obvious that he was silly for asking her this question.

"How do you know that, Sookie?" She shrugged and reached up to put her hand on his face.

"Just know," she said as if no further explanation were needed. Jones looked away from Eric, and went on with his story for Sookie. The scene shifted again.

Now Sookie sat in the big chair alone, listening as Jones, seated to her right, spoke to another across on the other sofa. They were all eating ice cream sundaes. Sookie had strawberry, Jones had caramel and the other man had fudge.

_The Master_, Sookie whispered in his mind. He felt her anger and no small amount of fear from the Sookie who was guiding this tour. From Tea Cup Sookie, he knew that she liked strawberry sundaes and that The Master should go soon so she can get Mr. Jones to tell her more about Ewic. While she didn't understand what was being discussed she did remember the words. She never really listened to grown up talk anyway.

Eric looked at The Master. He was physically the mirror of Mr. Jones, same height, same build, and same style of clothing. His hair was a lighter brown and his eyes were blue. Both men seemed relaxed, their tones low and comfortable, but the words they were a different thing entirely.

"Jones," The Master began, taking a bite of his sundae, "You know that bringing her here is not allowed, and that as a result I am owed a boon." Jones looked at him smiling a smile that never touched his eyes.

"I did not bring her here, she came on her own. There is no boon owed to you."

"The rules clearly state—"Jones cut him off, still speaking softly. Eric was starting to understand that they were discussing Sookie, and that while their tones were soft it was to protect her from understanding what was really happening.

"The rules state that if I interfere in any way that you are owed a boon to do the same. I did not interfere, she came of her own Free Will." The Master snorted, chuckling.

"Ah, your 'get out jail free card', Free Will!" he took another bite of his sundae as he chuckled at Jones. "Tell me, Jones. How did she just _happen_ to find her way here, with no interference from you? And spare me the lies, I know what she means to you, both her and the Viking. How did she come to you so soon if you did nothing?"

"She asked for help, she came here under her own power. I did nothing but refuse to bar her way, once she had arrived."

"Tsk, tsk, Jones. We both know that you did more than that when she arrived. You told her of the Viking and began to lay the ground work for their reunion. Though how you plan to keep him alive for a thousand years, is beyond me at this point! I can't wait to see though! You are always so creative with _your_ Horses." Eric saw a shadow slip over Jones' face when The Master said that.

"My Horses, are free. They are presented choices, and opportunities that sometimes change the course of their path but they are never harnessed and forced, never '_ridden_'." There was no change in his tone as he spoke the words, still calm and amiable rhetoric toward a friend, but the feel of The Library changed. Tension was in the air now and even Sookie could feel it.

"You know, Jones that even if I were of a mind to ignore the breach of her being here, that I would not be able to ignore your interference with stirring tales of The Vikings." Sookie looked up at this, her sharp gaze falling on The Master at his mention of the one thing she was waiting to hear about.

"You know about my Ewic?" she asked him sliding to the edge of the big chair and standing on the floor, looking at him intently, her sundae still in her hand, but forgotten in favor of the potential of a more desired story. The Master turned to look at her directly, smiling, but his eyes were ice.

"Of course my dear, who do you think put him where he is?" She frowned, not understanding. She knew she didn't like his tone, but was not sure what to say to that. Before she could speak, Jones opened his arms to her and she immediately ran into them, letting him pull her onto his lap. Eric saw The Master frown now, openly for the first time as he slid forward, ice cream now gone from his hand. Eric glanced around, and everyone's ice cream was gone. "Jones, for my boon, I will take her memory of this, and of the Viking." Eric saw Jones hug her tiny frame close in reflex.

"How?" he asked.

"As painfully as possible. I want to make it hurt. I want to make permanent." His tone was now anything but amicable. Sookie clung to Jones in fear, but still did not cry and did not speak.

"The permanence of the boon is not up to you," Jones said, looking at where Eric was standing again. Eric was sure Jones was seeing him. The Master sighed.

"Sad, but true. I can only devise the punishment, how it plays out long term is still a matter of Free Will. It's a bitch, but whatcha gonna do?" He shrugged and smiled charmingly, but no one was being fooled anymore. The Master stood up and looked at Sookie one last time. The predatory look on his face, made Eric again, want to kill him. The Master chuckled, "You couldn't kill me and you know it." The Master turned to look at him then. The contempt on his face was rivaled only by the coldness in his eyes. "It is heartwarming though, well at least for_ me_ it is, to see you so chivalrous. Who would have guessed you could find some moral ground to stand on underneath all the blood you have spilled, Viking."

Eric moved forward to attack The Master, perhaps they could end this now. The Master laughed as he passed right through him. He looked at Jones, "This, _this _is why I will win, Jones. I made sure of it this time." By the time Eric turned to face The Master again he was gone.

"You see me, too?" he asked Jones, who nodded.

"She does, too," he barely got it out before a tiny squeal split the air.

"Ewic!" and she was on him, trying to climb him like a tree. "'S'at really you, Ewic?" He picked her up and rained kisses on her head and face. His large hand covered the entire back her head.

"Wait, how can I touch her and not The Master?" he asked Jones still clutching her close.

"Because she wants you, too." Moving Sookie to his hip he let go of the idea that he was in her memory of the past interacting with her in real time. Wasting time arguing over what was possible and not possible was still just a waste of time. He was here, it was happening. He could melt down later. In fact, he was _sure_ he would melt down later.

"What has just happened here, Jones?"

"We lost some ground on a technicality, and now, The Master is going to claim his right to interfere and balance things again."

"What will he do?" Eric was scared, though logically he understood that this had already happened.

"She was ahead of her time, and found her way here long before she was supposed to. I took advantage of that to try and restore the bond between the two you sooner that it was originally planned to happen."

"You told her of me?"

"I _reminded_ her of you."

"What will he do?" Eric asked again, more urgently this time.

"If I know him, and I do, he will break her. He will find some way to slow down her development into who and what she is to be. He will take her memory of me and of you, he has already promised that. She needs those memories to hold onto."

"Can you stop him?"

"No, he is within his right to do what he is doing. It is part of the place he holds to act in this way. He can do nothing else but this, or something like it."

"But," Eric hesitated here, thinking back over what he heard while they discussed her fate, "she is yours, right? How does he have any right to do anything to her, if she is yours?"

"She is ours, his and mine. Everything I am, I have, is his, and everything he is and has is mine. In this there is balance, order from chaos. Her actions and my actions are out of The Order. To prevent Chaos he must act. I would do the same, were the situations reversed and have on many occasions."

"So, what makes you different from him?"

"He enjoys hurting them. I do not. It is another aspect of our Balance."

"What will you do when he breaks her?" Eric pressed, desperate to save her, and knowing that he never would be able to.

"I can't stop him from breaking her. I can perhaps guide the fractures, perhaps delineate the pattern that his breaks must cause."

"WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN?" Eric screamed, finally just losing his shit. Powerless to protect the Sookie in his arms, or the one in his bed, or any version of her anywhere ever it would seem, he reached his magical tipping point and just lost it.

Tea Cup Sookie put her hands on his face and looked him in the eye, he heard her in his mind. _Eric, you know this turns out ok._ _You know that I love you, and I know that you love me. You know that, take comfort in that knowledge and see the rest of what there is to see._

"It means, Eric that I can't stop him, but I can protect her to some degree. I can give her a way to fight to become what she is supposed to be. It won't be as easy as it should be, but I think that I can turn that to our advantage as well. There is strength borne from adversity and that she can surely only benefit from on her path.

"Sookie," Jones spoke to her directly now. "I have another story to tell you now. It's about magic doors, and how a young girl can protect herself if things get bad. There are some scary parts to it, but it all works out in the end. Do you want to hear about the doors?" She nodded in Eric's arms, turning to him one more time and kissing his cheek, hugging his neck tight, she wiggled to get down.

"See you soon, Ewic?" he nodded and tried to smile for her. He was sure it was as pitiful as he felt.

Eric took one more look around at the The Library. "Jones, are you The Librarian?"

"No," Jones chuckled at the question, finding it ridiculous.

"Then who is?"

"You might as well ask me who The Writer is, Eric, for I cannot tell you that either. Not here and not now. Come to me of your own choosing and prove your worthiness to be here, then we can talk of such things.

"One last thing, Eric. Where you are now, The Master will have chosen a champion for his cause. Beware."

"What is his cause?" Eric asked, not really expecting an answer at this point, since so few were forthcoming no matter how much he railed and questioned.

"On the surface, to keep you and Sookie apart, but the endgame is much bigger than just the two of you. You are ultimately but cogs in the wheel."

"If we are so insignificant then why bother with us at all?"

"Small does not mean "insignificant", Eric. Some cogs are essential to the rolling of a wheel."

32233223322332233223322332233223

Eric opened his eyes in their chamber at Uppsala and looked at Sookie again, anew with wonder and awe. He had so many questions, but before he could open his mouth to ask any of them he heard a voice in his mind. _That fucker Northman is here! He said he would be. Can't let him know I was here, gotta get back let him know that we found them._

"Sookie, do you hear anyone outside?" she listened and her eyes grew wide.

"No, but there are several voids out there. There are three vampires in the woods around Uppsala, Eric!" She looked at him, puzzled. "How did you know?"

"Looks like I have access to your telepathy after all. Just that it only works for me with vampires." He closed his eyes to listen in for more information, wondering if one of these guys was here to champion for The Master.


	19. Do The Walls Come Down?

A/N- Thank you all for your feedback and comments! I love the things you say, and that you take the time to not only read my story but to share your thoughts as well. It really means a lot!

**Twenty Questions**

Chapter 19- Do the Walls Come Down?

Time was the world had been entirely too fucking slow for Eric Northman. Everything and everyone thought and moved at a snail's pace. Interactions left him exhausted and wanting. Everyone he met made him feel alone, and lonely.

Acceptance of this caused an internal dichotomy that was unresolvable for Eric. He took pride in his prowess, his accomplishments, his victories, and yet they turned to sand in his mouth when he realized that there were no worthy foes, and therefore no worthy victories. The split came when he found himself unable to lower his internal expectations of himself and yet unable to accept the separation that these expectations and actions caused between him and everyone else.

He longed for a challenge. He longed for a world that was worthy of him. He longed to have those in his life that let him not only meet his boundaries but who challenged him to exceed them, to push beyond and venture into dark unexplored territory.

Or, at least his did until he got it.

What he had just witnessed granted his wish. Exceeding it by so much that he for once was running to catch up. It was disconcerting and painful to be _less_ than the best, to be _not_ in front, to _not_ have a clue, to feel _weak_ and unable to protect the people and things you loved.

He was choking on the irony that for the first time, _ever_, he had something that he truly wanted to protect, and he could do nothing. Nothing at all. He was struggling to come to grips with the fact that for the first time _ever_, he was out of his depth, in over his head and had no fucking idea what to do next.

_If Northman is here, then the girl is, too. She was in the photos on the site. Maybe we could take them now? I bet there would be a reward in it if we brought them back!_

The first vampire intruder called the others over to him and began to discuss what to do now that they had confirmed their location. As Eric listened he learned they had been found because of some photos on Facebook taken by the checkout girl at the Wal-Mart in Kalispell. Because she thought he was gorgeous and they had been discovered. Rage overtook Eric when this came to light. Not rage at Anjey the store clerk, who had been sharing with the world that she had seen what she thought was the most beautiful man in the world, but rather rage that simply because of how be looked their safety was at risk.

_If you're so fucking special, Northman, then why are you coming apart now? _The internal voice was his own, but he noted the similarity to the CIB_. You've been so fucking arrogant and sure of yourself for a millennia! Was it just because you hid behind your masks and ran from the truth that you are nothing more than a pretty face with nothing real or substantial to offer anyone?_

The Master, Jones, all of it forced Eric to face himself. They had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and forced him to see that _he_ was not the force to be reckoned with here, and that pushed Eric over the edge. To know that in this situation, when he wanted to be Warrior, Champion, Protector, Savior, he was relegated to Pretty Face, and that pretty face had just led their enemy right to their door was overwhelming.

Not realizing that Eric was collapsing in on himself, Sookie, had started pulling on clothes the minute she recognized that they had been found. When she turned back to the bed to ask what he had heard Eric was gone. She reached out to him and felt his rage, and pain. Listening to his disjointed thoughts and self-recriminations she knew that he was going to kill the vampires outside. Not just because their safety was important, mainly he was doing it to feel like he was in control of something; to reassure himself that he was not powerless in these dark churning waters.

She followed close behind, even as he moved at vamp speed. She didn't want to interfere. Instead, she went to watch his back and help in the unlikely event that he should need any.

It might have been smarter to re-direct them as they had the Were at the motel, but right now, they were the enemy, the enemy was here, and Eric was beyond reason. He needed this. She could feel it barrel through the bond to her, and it fired her own needs for violence and bloodshed but she held them in check. He needed this more.

She watched as he danced naked in the moonlight, barely touching the ground as he met their enemy and laid waste to them in mere seconds. She thought for a moment that if not for her enhanced vision that she would have missed the whole thing.

Eric took off the first vampires head with the side of his hand, the second one he threw at a tree, staking him through the heart on a protruding branch. The last one he grabbed, ripping off his arms at the shoulders, before taking out his heart and squeezing to a pulp. Eric decapitated the corpse as he started to liquefy.

The snow around Eric for twenty feet was red, and he was splashed in gore from head to toe. He was standing with his back to Sookie, his hands still claws, chest heaving as he looked around for something else to tear. She could feel that there had not been enough of this skirmish to provide the release and validation he needed. As she watched he took flight through the trees and from a distance she heard wood splinter and break as he ripped through the forest.

In the bond she felt his anger and frustration at being found, at being the _cause_ of them being found, at being unable to protect her from their enemies. At being reduced to nothing more than the Pretty Face when faced with bigger larger enemies than he had ever confronted before.

How long Eric destroyed the forest behind Uppsala, Sookie didn't know. She knew that it was a long time, but little by little she could feel him burn through his rage. As the rage lessened, the frustration, emptiness and fear grew. He felt so much responsibility for her, and for everything, and he felt completely ill-equipped to deal with any of it.

Forever later, still standing at the edge of the bloody snow she felt him coming toward her, moving at vamp speed. He was not there, and then he was, standing before her, gore spattered, hands healing, fangs out, and eyes burning with emotion. He towered over her, leaning in and looking down, snarling.

Sookie looked up at him, for a long moment, looking into him, looking through him.

_This face before you, Beloved has terrorized for centuries. Am I so pitiful I can't even scare you now? _Sookie heard him in her mind, his expression never changing, and hers didn't either. She waited.

After long moments Eric retracted his fangs, and moved to kiss her. She didn't move away, in fact she didn't move at all. When his lips touched hers, she remained exactly where she was, eyes open looking at him, and not kissing him back.

Eric tried to pull her into his arms, and hold her close. She didn't resist but again, she didn't reciprocate. She simply stood there in his arms. When he realize she wasn't hugging him back he stepped away and looked at her, disbelieving of her rejection at the time when he needed her most. _I would never do that to her!_ He thought indignantly, sure that she heard him and still she said nothing.

Those moments of waiting were some of the hardest that Sookie had ever had to deal with. She wanted to hold him, she wanted to let herself be taken in by the Masks of Lover and Friend, she wanted him, but this wasn't about her. This was about him, and the fact that if he didn't get past accepting himself, he would fold before this had even begun and she would lose him, forever.

Eric looked at her standing there in the snow, where she had been standing for hours at this point, shivering cold, half dressed, and waiting. He realized that he was not being rejected. If he had been rejected she would have walked away by now. _Should have walked away by now,_ his internal voice sneered. He had to warm her.

He moved so fast that Sookie, even with her enhanced senses, barely clocked him taking her inside, undressing her, and carrying her into the warm water of the underground spring. Her nerve endings hissed when they caught up to the temperature change and sent pains throughout her skin. She moaned as her muscles reacted. She still did not speak. Eric was holding her on his lap, his head down, forehead resting between her shoulder blades, his hands on her waist.

After she acclimated, she leaned back, forcing his head up to rest his chin on her right shoulder as she lay back on his left. She still didn't speak and Eric, not able to stand it anymore, finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, Soo-," he began.

"No!" she cut him off before he finished, but stopped there.

"What-?" he tried again.

"Your regret changes nothing. Be who you truly are so that you can be who you want to be. Take off the Masks." He sat there, feeling her words. This time he accepted them.

He closed his eyes and pulled her into his mind. She stood before him again, when he had exited the forest. Blood soaked, naked, fangs reflecting moonlight, he stared down at her.

"The Monster," she named him, reaching up and touching the edge of his jawline, and pulling away a glowing mask. She held it a moment and then dropped it on ground, it cracked and broke into several pieces. She looked up. He moved toward her and kissed her again as he done when he exited the forest.

"The Lover," she named him, reaching up again and touching the edge of the jawline, taking away another glowing mask. He moved to pull her into his arms.

"The Friend," she named him, reaching up and pulling away another mask. He picked her up and took her in, into the spring and seated her on his lap in the water.

"The Protector," she named him, reaching back over her shoulder, and pulling away another mask, setting it free to float on the water around them.

"I'm sorry, Sook-," again she cut him off.

"The Coward," she named him, pulling this mask away and setting it afloat. The ritual established she continued to name him. "The Liar, The Leader, The King, The Maker, The Child, The Father, The Brother, The Son, The Teacher." At each calling she removed mask after mask setting them in the water until they floated surrounded in a sea of them, the sounds of them clinking as they bumped together. Finally there as only one mask left.

Sookie turned in his lap, in his mind, embraced his hips with her thighs, and kissed his lips softly. Resting her forehead against his for a moment she looked into his eyes. _This last one only you can do, my love._

_No! _She heard his anguished denial in her mind. She did speak again, there was no need. There was no coward left to hide behind, she had stripped him of that. He shuddered all over and reached up to pull the mask away.

Sookie looked at what the mask had covered. It was an empty black space carved in the shape of the mask he had just removed. She leaned in and peered into the Darkness. Before she could speak a hand reached out and grabbed her, pulling her down into the Dark; down into Eric.

She landed with a thud, in pitch black_. Eric?_ She called out with her mind, not sure where she was or what it meant to be there. Across the way from her a candle lit up.

She moved toward the light, and saw there a short, wrinkly, old man, ugly as sin, and he was dressed as a jester.

"Hello?" Sookie said to the jester.

"So, now you know," the wrinkly old little man answered in Eric's voice. She moved closer and looked him in the eye. Yes, those are Eric's eyes. This was in fact Eric Northman, or rather what he thought had to be covered up with mask upon mask.

"Know what, Beloved?" she asked him, moving closer and taking his hand. He was a foot shorter than her, easy, so she had to reach down to do it, but she didn't mind.

"That this is my true face." He sounded sad like he was worn down and expecting her to heap tears and recriminations on him any minute.

"Explain, please, Eric. Why do you see yourself like this?" Eric sighed.

"My entire existence, even before I was made Vampire, everyone that I have ever met has wanted to be near me, wanted to touch me, wanted to be touched by me, because of how I look. But how I look is not who I am, it has nothing to do with me at all really. It sounds pathetic to complain about being thought to be beautiful, but in my mind it is no different than those who feel the loss of attention for not being attractive enough. It is just as much an impactive force to the path of my life.

"Either way, you are being singled out, separated because of how you look. People might seem to be kinder to me based on my attractiveness, but they don't _know_ me anymore than the unattractive people who are overlooked. I am surrounded by people and no less alone than those less attractive.

"Enough time alone in a crowd and what you look like ceases to matter. It becomes a burden, and barrier and you are just as alone and lonely as you can be, and reminded of it every time someone tells you how beautiful you are. Reminded that they want something from you, something that you don't even have to give them, but it doesn't matter because they want it anyway. And since you are so fucking beautiful surely it will not be a burden to grant their wish!

"I was away fucking some shepherdess who thought I was _beautiful_ when my family was killed. I was made Vampire because Godric found me beautiful. Night after night, women and men offer themselves to me as food, for pleasure, not because of who I am but because of what I am. There is no connection in this experience. No meaning. I am made ugly by the empty people who touch me, who take from me, as if they were entitled.

"I am old, truly, and no magic can erase that thousand years that I bear on my back each day.

"More than that, though," gesturing to his clothing, "I am a fool."

Sookie listening and processing as fast as she could to understand hit a wall on that last one. "What do you mean, 'a fool'?"

He sighed now, rubbing his wrinkly forehead, a tear slipping down his face. "I used to think that I was too good for this world, that I was made for bigger and better things and after meeting you, and facing Jones and The Master, I realize that not only am I not good enough, I don't have any chance of winning this thing with them. I don't even have a chance to understand it.

"I am a fool because I came all this way, for nothing. I can't save you, I can't teach you anything, and I am not good enough to love you. All I can do is die for you and I will do that gladly." Sookie stood there looking at Eric, or at least how he saw himself and felt his emptiness, his self-pity through the bond. She remembered seeing him give up like this before.

_Why does it sound like you're saying good-bye to me?_

_Because I am…_

Sookie moved closer to the specter before her. What _he_ thought he was didn't matter to her at all. She had_ seen_ him, she _told_ him that the night they arrived in Kalispell. How she saw him had nothing to do with how he looked, she loved the man he was.

"Here's the truth," she said, forcing him to meet her gaze, pushing her words until they echoed through his mind, folding over themselves, caressing him, reminding him what he meant to her. "If I were to meet the True Death without having seen your True Face, Eric Northman, that would be my biggest regret." Never breaking her gaze, sounding almost hypnotized by her words he responded.

"Why doesn't it sound like you are saying to good-bye to me, Miss Stackhouse?"

"Because I am not," she said, pulling him to her, and kissing him with all the passion and demand that he plundered her with in his office. Somewhere it registered that this time, he was straining up to meet her lips, instead of the other way around, and then she forgot to think and just kissed him.

She kissed him for trusting her enough to show her this.

She kissed him for loving her enough to bring her to Uppsala.

She kissed him for learning to cook for her.

She kissed him for teaching her to sword fight.

She kissed him for living a thousand years, so that he could be here now to hold her right now in this moment.

She kissed him for all the kisses that she had missed in those thousand years.

She kissed him, because she loved him, like she had known she would from the first moment she had be told that Eric the Viking existed.

She kissed him because she could feel how much he loved her.

As she kissed him, in the mind and in the flesh she told him again what she had said before. She wrapped the words in a silent prayer that this time he would _hear_ her, that this time he would _believe_ her.

_ It's not what you look like that makes you so fucking fabulous. It's the man inside. I barely know him yet myself, but every time I see him he takes my breath away…_

_The way he fights for what he wants, and then to hold onto it with every ounce of his soul. He isn't afraid to get dirty to get what he wants or to keep it. _

_He inspires me to want to be better than I am just so I can impress him._

_Him, he's the one that melts my panties, the rest is just beautiful window dressing._

She heard him sob, inside and outside and when she left his mind and opened her eyes she saw his face covered in blood tears. She licked them away, pulling herself up to slide his hard length into her, feeling at peace for the first time that night, once he rested deep inside her.

_I don't care what happens now, Eric. I will not lose you. You are mine!_ _We will figure this out together!_ Eric thrust into her deep and hard, still crying. So much had happened tonight, and the only thing real to Eric right in this moment the tight heat around his throbbing cock and his love for the woman in his arms.

_I will die for you, Sookie, if that is all I can do, I can at least do that!_ He sent that to her never breaking their frantic kisses and rhythms. Her answer was to squeeze him tightly inside her, making him moan.

_Where ever you go, Viking, I go. All that matters to me is that you are there. I will follow you into Death if there is no other way, but, Eric?_

_Yes, Beloved?_

_Let's try and live a little before we just throw in the towel, ok?_

_Yes,_ he answered her, as he bit into her neck, tasting life, tasting her. She came around him, and forced him to surrender as well.

_Mine_, he sent to her.

_Always_, she sent back.

In that moment, nothing else mattered.


	20. Do You Know The Way?

A/N-Thank you again all of you for comments and feedback! I love hearing from you so please keep it coming!

**Twenty Questions**

Chapter 20- Do You Know the Way?

When Eric opened his eyes he was a huge blue bed, in a large blue room. There were open double doors to the right side of the bed, and to the left. A soft breeze blew through the room, causing the diaphanous blue curtains that hung from the top of the bed to the floor all around it to sway gently back and forth. It was their tickling him that had awakened him.

He could smell the ocean, and he could hear the waves close by as they broke on the beach. The best part, the most unbelievable part is that it was day and he was not burning. He sat up in the large bed, the dark blue covers and sheets pooling around his naked hips and reached out for Sookie in the bond and with his mind.

_I am here, Beloved_, she answered, pulling him to her through the bond. Pulling on some jeans that were on the floor beside the bed, Eric closed his eyes and followed the pull to her side.

Sookie stood on the edge of the ocean, letting the waves come up and tickle her toes as the tide rolled in. She was wearing a lavender dress, made of the same diaphanous material as the bed curtains. It ended just above her knees and when she moved in the light the dress seemed to glow, like her hands did when she used her power.

Eric stopped behind her, pulling her into his arms and back to rest against him. He looked at the sun, his internal clock telling him…nothing. There was no sense of time here on this beach. He had no sense of worry for the sun in the sky and what it might do to him. No sense of worry that they had been found in Uppsala, or for The Master or anything else. Eric felt peace, or at least what he had always imagined peace would feel like.

He sighed and kissed her neck. _I must be dreaming again_, he thought.

She turned in his arms and put her hands on his neck_. Have I ever told you, how much I love your neck?_ He smiled down at her.

_Not that I recall. _

_It's so long, there are miles of alabaster flesh that need my kisses_. She pulled him down then and started to cover the distance slowly one soft kiss at a time, like she had all eternity to traverse this distance. _It's so strong,_ she continued as she kissed him_, but what I love best about it,_ she paused here and as she kissed him, her tongue flicked out and dragged across his skin for just a second. He shuddered in her arms and a spontaneous smile burst forth on his lips as the half turned away from her, while pulling her with him at the same time. His unconscious body language defining his false attempt at escape. Sookie smiled.

_What I love best about your neck is how sensitive it is. When I kiss you here, when I bite you here,_ she nibbled him playfully, _when I drink from you here, I can feel how much it affects you and it guts me to know that I can do anything, _anything_ that would reach you so much…it reassures me that it's ok to let myself be as moved by you, because I am not alone in being swept away._

He shuddered again against her, and leaned down into her kiss, letting himself fall into her, wrapped in her words, her arms, her kisses. She treated him reverently, in deference to the spiritual revelations he had recently undertaken in bearing his soul to her. She wanted to protect him from ever feeling anything other than her love, and while she knew that was not possible, it did nothing to diminish the desire she felt.

He had given her everything, and she in turn wanted to do the same for him. There was still so much he didn't know. Some of it, she was just remembering herself now that she had herself 'together'. Things had been hidden from her like pieces of maps split in three. Individually they were just wrinkled scraps of debris, but together, they were secrets of great power. They allowed her to do things that she never dreamed she could do, like come to this place they were in now_. Paraspejl_, her mind whispered to her, the place beside the mirrors.

Once she had seen Eric's True Face, her internal struggle to maintain unification had stopped. As promised, once he was perceived to be a threat to her no longer, the Cast Iron Bitch had stopped fighting. There was nothing to protect her from, and so the CIB had no purpose here. In that brief time, Sookie had started to heal and in doing so had begun to realize some of what she had lost when the Master had decreed her punishment. _Oh!_ She felt the CIB stir at the thought what had caused her to break.

She needed to share this with Eric, but hesitated to do so, so soon after what they had already been through together. She wanted some time to just focus on him, and reward him in gentle and loving ways for his bravery. He had been so brave, she thought as she kissed him. Not one man in million would have just dropped all his masks and shown her the truth as he did. Not one man in a million would have been that brave. She was starting to wonder if Eric himself would now start to remember things that perhaps he had forgotten or that had been taken from him by The Master as well.

She would ask later. Now she wanted to show him Paraspejl and all the wonders it contained. Gently breaking their kiss, she rested her forehead against his_. You are not dreaming, my love_. He frowned.

_I must be. Otherwise I would be dead. The sun is up._

_It's not the sun as you know it, dearest_. She told him then of remembering the way to Paraspejl, and that she had come here a child. It was her place, and while she was not sure what that meant exactly, she thought that Jones had told her that no one could come here that she did not allow.

_That includes The Master?_ he pressed her.

_I think so, yes, Eric_. That set him back more than the sun in the sky. The Master and Jones were ancient and powerful, how could she have such a place of safety? Clearly there was more going on here than he had realized when he had surrendered to his fear of not being able to protect her. Feeling a spark of hope in his chest her smiled down at her and let her lead him away to see the sites.

Paraspejl, Eric soon found, was a small island that sat in the middle of a turquoise sea. The only structure on it was the house that he had awakened in, but there was a lagoon and small waterfall in the middle of the island. She told him as they walked this place was not the world they had been in, that this was a place just on other side of it. That he should think of it as the place between parallel worlds, the crawlspace between the walls of the worlds.

_We can see into the other worlds from here, Eric, but they can't see us_.

_Can we see into all other worlds from here, Sookie? _

_I am not sure, Eric. This is coming back to me, but slowly. I know we can see the world we live in, but I am not sure about the rest. _

_How did we get here? Last thing I remember was being in the spring with you._

_You were in no condition to fight and we were out of time before dawn. I remembered this place, and brought you here. _

_But how? _

Just then they arrived back and where they had started on the beach.

_I will show you, but first, I want to share this with you. Please sit with me?_ Sookie sat in the sand then and motioned that he sit between her legs, laying back against her chest.

One of her hands rested on his middle, and the other was tangled in his hair, massaging his scalp in soothing patterns, interspersed with random adoring kisses on his ears, neck and head. He sighed contentedly, watching for the first time in thousand years, as the sun slipped beneath the horizon. He turned to look at her in the dying light, and she saw a single blood tear slide down his cheek.

_Thank you_, he sent to her, taking her hand in his and kissing her palm. _Why doesn't the sun burn me here, Beloved? _

_Because I don't want it to_, was her answer.

_How strange_, he thought, _that her answer makes sense to me now._

She could feel what this experience meant to him and so even though the sun was gone she let them linger there. Awhile later they rose in unison and went toward the house.

They entered back in through the blue room where Eric had awakened, and passed through a door into the rest of the structure.

From the outside, Eric had seen what looked like a beach bungalow style house. It seemed to be on the small side, even compared to Uppsala, but perhaps as with Uppsala's hidden chambers below there was more to Paraspejl than met the eye. She led him across the hall and opened a door to a dark room. Rather than turning on a light she closed the door and stood in the dark next to him for a moment. He saw her light up, and caught a glimpse of her face in the dim lavender light. Her eyes were closed but she was smiling. He could feel that whatever she was doing felt good to her. It felt right, like it was something she had been made to do.

He saw another light source from the corner of his eye and turned to face it. He saw a raised dais in the middle of the floor and on it was a large mirror, reflecting the light and the darkness in the room. The source of lighting came from above, and Eric remembered the chandelier in The Library operated in much the same fashion. He felt her pull his hand as she moved toward the dais, going up 3 steps and stopping in front of the mirror.

It was framed in silver and as wide as he was tall, and towered over him by a foot or more. _Will silver burn me here?_

_No. There is nothing in Paraspejl that will harm you in any way_. He reached out to touch the frame, there was no reaction.

_Is that true because you are with me, or just because it is always true?_ She smiled at him.

_I do not know, once you are up to it, as we tested me in Uppsala, we will test you in Paraspejl._ He felt her squeeze his hand. _This is how we came here, Eric. You were in down time, and I remembered this place, and the large mirror you had in the loft upstairs at Uppsala. I knew that we only had so long before more company arrived and that we had to get some place safe. I brought the mirror to the main floor, brought you up from the chamber below, sealed the doors to our resting place, and then brought you through._ She waved her hand and heard her whisper _"Montrez-moi." _The image in the mirror swirled and suddenly he was looking at Uppsala. Specifically, he was looking at the main room, and he could see the front door, as well as the entrance to the underground chamber.

_Oh, you clever, girl!_ She could feel his pleasure in the bond.

He could see that it was still daytime there at Uppsala, though he was only assuming it was the same day that they had left. Again, he realized that there was no sense of time here for him. His internal clock was just not functioning any longer.

"Pam!" he suddenly thought of her, and that he had not warned her of their departure, when she rose she would be worried, especially if she could no longer feel him in the bond. Sookie had been focused on their immediate safety and had not thought about what would happen to Pam. Someone was after them and if they dropped off the radar then she would be the next logical target.

"At Fangtasia, is there a mirror large enough for either of us to fit through?" Eric thought a moment and then remembered that in the room off the basement Pam kept clothes there and a full length mirror to admire herself in before going up on the floor. He nodded, and she took his hand, tapping into her bond with him.

"Think of Pam, and think of the mirror," she directed. She waved her hand and again whispered, "Montrez-moi." The basement of Fangtasia was now visible in the mirror.

Just then Pam walked into the room, alone and was standing in front of them, checking out her reflection in the mirror. "Me voir," she whispered beside him.

Pam was infamous for her ice cold stare, her unflappable exterior, and her ability to maintain these in the most dire and strenuous of circumstances. The appearance of her Master and the Barmaid in the mirror before her tested the mettle of that woman but did not break it.

She stepped back, just as they stepped forward into the basement of Fangtasia. "Well, fuck me, if isn't Alice and the Knave of Hearts." He smirked and pulled her into his arms for a hug. Sookie couldn't help but giggle at their feigned nonchalance. You would think people came through mirrors around here every day! "Master, you look well. Why are you here?"

"We were found at Uppsala, and have taken refuge somewhere else. I did not have time to warn you. Are you in danger here?"

"Nothing definite to report either way. No leads on the bomber, but obviously someone is looking for you," she raised her eyebrow at him, waiting on him to supply more information. As she looked into his eyes, she saw that something in him had changed, something between him and the barmaid had changed, as well. Eric looked deliriously happy, but he was trying to mask it from her.

_Do you want to take her with us to Paraspejl?_ Her question spun him a little. He wanted Pam to be safe, but he felt that the stress of having to maintain his Master persona with her would delay the journey inward he was taking with Sookie.

_Can she reach us in Paraspejl, if she needs us?_

_Yes, if that is what you wish, Beloved. Everything I am, everything I have is yours, this includes Paraspejl, and entrance there._ He beamed his love to her, and finally began to understand what those words she had been saying to him so long now meant.

Pam caught the interplay between the two of them and knew that they were somehow silently communicating about something. She could also feel that they were now bonded. When Eric looked at Sookie at the end of the exchange it was everything she could do to not gasp at the look at the love on his face. She had never seen him look like that. Now she knew why he was so happy, but she sensed fear in the bond from him, too. He was worried. _Figures_, Pam thought. _You get a good thing, you get a bad thing, too_. It was for that reason Pam had been quite happy to never fall in love. She knew that as soon as she had something she truly wanted to keep it would be siren call to someone who would want to take it from here_. Better to keep your head down and walk the middle of the road. _

She had always thought her Master was like her in that regard. She could see now that she had either been totally wrong about him, or something major had changed in the last three weeks. The look of joy on his face, and the feel of it in the bond were so much that she wondered if feeling like that weren't worth the risk after all. Shaking her from her reverie Eric told her how to reach them if she needed help and warned her that the bond might not work given the great distance between them. He told her not worry about them, they were safe, and they were happy and they would be in touch soon.

She watched them step back through the mirror, holding hands. She felt them, Eric quite strongly, and Sookie fleeting on the edge of her senses, but still there. Their love was large, and hot and completely overwhelming; it sought the chinks in her armor and forced its way into her mind and heart. Her instinctive response was anger at being an unwilling prisoner through the bond to their swirling emotions. Underneath that though was jealousy that no one had ever looked at her the way Sookie now looked Eric.

_Emotions are too fucking messy_, she decided, filing all this way to think about some other time. She had a bar to run, a bomber to find, and Sheriff's duties to cover. She didn't have time or interest for such nonsense. Her Master was safe, that was all that mattered. She checked her appearance one last time and headed upstairs to the main floor of the bar. She was reviewing the numbers from last night as she headed across the floor and missed that she had company.

"Oh, my, you do look lovely tonight, Pamela. Tell me, where is your Master? I know you know, I can smell him on you." Pam had hoped to never hear that voice again, ever. In fact she had specifically said, "Do not bring that _thing_ back into this bar!"

_This would be the bad thing_, she thought as she looked at him sitting on her Master's throne, looking at her with his three thousand year old eyes. She would never make it to the mirror, and there was nowhere else she could go. Her mind raced frantically as she cataloged how to handle this and survive. Logically, she should run. She defied logic and took a step toward him. Placing a hand on her hip, and smiling her best icy smile at him.

"Hello, Russell. Welcome back to Fangtasia."


	21. Believe In Us

A/N- Thank you all for your comments and support! I love to hear from you! J

**Twenty Questions**

Chapter 21- Believe In Us

Eric remembered life without Sookie. He had a year of it, an eternity of it in that year. It was a horrible way to learn about love. To glimpse the heights in a kiss before being dashed on the rocks below when he lost her. If he were really honest with himself though, he suspected that he never would have been able to realize his love for her if she had not gone away.

Sookie right there at his side made it hard to think and reason. He reacted more than acted when he found out she was involved. Both of them running around reacting to sleights perceived and imagined would have made it impossible to see past his pride, his anger and his lust for her.

He could appreciate the benefits from the loss of that year, but it was not something that he ever wanted to repeat again.

When they had returned from Fangtasia last night they had gone to bed, tangled together in the blue room with the doors open and the sounds and smells of the ocean filling the room. He fell asleep with her spooned to the front of him. _Yes, asleep_ he thought. _Here in Paraspejl I sleep, as though I were a man. Night and day have no power over me here_, he thought as he drifted off, and he began to dream.

He saw himself standing over Russell the night he buried him in concrete.

_I can't bear the thought of you finding any redemption…no escape from knowing I took what you love most and you will never get it back_.

_You make me bleed, my Child. So much hatred._

He was supposed to scream at Godric then, he knew what happened next, but instead he walked away from Russell's graveside and stood beside Godric before pulling him into a tight embrace. _I have missed you so much, Godric! _His undead heart felt swollen with emotion to see his Maker again, and to feel him return the embrace.

_You have learned much, my Child, since these events took place_. Eric pulled back and looked at him, smiling and thinking of how happy he was now, compared to then.

_Yes, I am learning that as usual, you were right. Love is all._ Godric smiled at him now, reaching up to softly touch Eric's face. _I thought when I lost you in Dallas that I would never see you again!. _

_I will never leave you, Eric. I told you that the night before I met the sun._

_You told me many things that night that made no sense. You said that I would come to understand in time, that we didn't belong here_. Eric stopped, a look of wonder on his face. _You didn't mean Vampires, you meant you and I specifically, didn't belong there, didn't you?_ Godric smiled at him and waited patiently. _Why didn't you let me come with you then? _Eric pleaded. It had been a hard decision, but if Godric had not commanded him he would have met the sun with him that morning.

_Think, my Child. What has changed between then and now? _

_Everything_. Godric nodded.

_Yes, everything. You were not ready to come with me then._ Suddenly Eric felt afraid.

_Are you saying I have to come with you now?_

_No, I would never command you to follow me into Death, you have always loved Life, Eric. Now more than ever you have so much new and wonderful to explore_. He smiled gently at his Child. Eric knelt on the ground at Godric's feet.

_Then what must I do, Master? How may I serve you?_

_You must prepare, Eric. I am here to show you things you must know. Change is coming. _Godric turned back to the graveside of Russell Edgington. The garage was built now and there was a truck parked over Russell's head. Godric knelt down closer to the cement pulling Eric down with him. Suddenly he could hear Russell's thoughts from below.

_Kill that fucking, Viking. When I get free I am going to string him up in silver netting for a hundred years and starve him. I am going to take his eyes over and over so that he can never see again…no I am going to kill his fairy bitch….I've got to get out of here, my Talbot, my beautiful Talbot, that fucker killed you, but I won't be so merciful with him! I swear it! Oh, please, someone come and set me free so I can kill him over and over and over again….please….anyone…please!_

**_I am here. _**

_What? Who is there?_

**_Someone who has come to help you. You want vengeance on the Viking? _**

Yes! YES!

**_Then I will help you. Do you want my help?_**

YES!

**_What will you give me for my help?_**

Anything you want!

**_I want you to be mine, Russell. I want you to bend to my every whim. I will help you kill the Viking and avenge your love, but in return, you will serve me. Agreed?_**

Russell, hesitated for just a minute. He hadn't gotten to be three thousand by being a fool. He knew this was a raw deal and that something wasn't quite right here, but what choice did he have? How else would he escape and make that bastard pay? _What does it mean to be yours? _Russell hedged, wanting to know who he was dealing with here.

**_Does it matter, if you get what you want? Your freedom, your vengeance. Does anything else really matter? _**

No, nothing else matters, Russell fumed.

**_Then you may call me The Master, Child, and I will make your every dream come true_**.

Eric's eyes were large and disbelieving when he turned to Godric again_. The Master has freed Russell? _Godric smiled sadly at his Child and nodded slightly. Eric sat back on his heels thoughts flying a million miles per hour.

Jones had warned him, "One last thing, Eric. Where you are now, The Master will have chosen a champion for his cause. Beware."

Russell Edgington was The Masters Champion, and it was all Eric's fault. If he had listened to Godric, and killed him…but no, there was no point in self-recrimination. This hand was dealt out long ago when Russell had murdered his parents. For just a moment Eric saw the size of the pattern that had led to this place, all the things that had to align to get here, all the work that had gone into Eric sharpening the spear himself that would pierce his side.

And people say that the Universe has no sense of humor.

_What do I do?_ Eric pleaded to Godric for guidance. _Can he come to Paraspejl? Is he loose back in the world? What will he do?_

_Shhh, Child. When the time comes to face him, remember what has changed from then until now. _

_Sookie? My love for Sookie?_

_Yes, and the gifts that love has opened from within and without for the two of you. Hold onto those gifts, and hold onto your love. You must believe in each other, even if no one else does. Nothing can stop the two of your together, so the first battle will be to take you apart._ Godric started to fade now, and Eric felt the dream slipping away as he awoke. He wanted to stay with Godric. Even though the dream had been a nightmare he missed his Maker so_. Remember, Child, love is all_.

"Eric," her voice was soft, still full of sleep. Her touch was soft and it telegraphed her caring for him. He opened his eyes and found her close to him, staring intently at him. "You were moaning in your sleep, Eric. The sound was breaking my heart. I am sorry to wake you, but I couldn't bear to hear you making that sound." She kissed him softly on the cheek as she cupped his face in her hand. He buried his face in her neck holding her close. Her hand went to the back of his head, her head turned to him, and she kissed his neck softly inhaling the scent of him into her lungs. She loved the smell of him, especially when he smelled of her. "What were you dreaming, my love?" He pulled back from her and looked in her eyes.

"Russell is free and The Master has named him Champion." Sookie's eyes grew wide.

"Russell is dead! It is not possible for him to be Champion!" Eric dropped his eyes.

"I didn't kill him," he told her softly. Needing her to understand as soon as possible how they had arrived here, he pulled her into his mind and showed her what had transpired after she had left Fangtasia after 'babysittin' the psycho.'

When she listened to The Master seduce Russell, her whole body shook. Instinctively, Eric pulled her closer, soothing her, and she calmed eventually, but through the bond he felt her pain and her rage before she managed to quell it.

After she had seen Russell cemented she watched Bill silver Eric and throw him into a pit beside of Russell's. She felt his fear as the cement poured down on him, but it wasn't fear for himself it was fear for her. _What could have been Eric's last thoughts were of me and how if he didn't get free I would never know what Bill had done. I would never know that I had been betrayed._

Eric pulled back from her and looked down at his hands waiting for her wrath.

She pulled him close and kissed him on the cheek. "What now?" was all she said. He closed his eyes in relief that she understood, that she wasn't angry. Unable to just accept it he had to know.

"Why are you not angry?"

"You are not who you were then, Eric, and the past can't be undone. I know that now you would never do something like that and not tell me. That fact that you did then, doesn't matter, other than the consequences. So, what now?"

"Could it have been just a dream, Sookie? Could it be that Russell is still in the concrete and there is nothing to worry about?" She smirked at him.

"Sure, it could be. But really, knowing how things go for us, I suspect that not only is Russell free, he's probably super charged and shitting fire bolts." Eric smiled slightly at her efforts to relieve the tension, and then remembered to tell her what Godric had said about their powers and their love. She nodded and took his hand.

"You saw, Godric?" he nodded. "Didja tell him that I wanted to talk to him, too?"

"I can't explain it, Sookie, but my gut tells me that when the time is right Godric will find us again. I believe you will get your chance."

"Ok," she said, accepting his words. "You know what I believe in, Eric?" he waited. "I believe in us. Nothing else matters." She put her arms around his middle and looked up into his eyes as she lay beside him, tangled in the blue sheets. "I have to show you something now, Eric. It's not going to be easy, in fact, I think it will be harder for you than it will be for me. I need you to remember that it's over, I am here with you, and it doesn't matter anymore. I have to tell you, though, because…well, you will see. Ok?"

In the bond he could feel her, her emotions were churning and she was nauseous.

"What is it, dearest?" He searched her eyes, sending calm and strength to her through the bond. She settled a little then and took a deep breath.

"When I was little, seven, maybe eight, my Uncle Bartlett started to take a special interest in me." She paused there, breathing erratically as she tried to keep her voice from breaking, and her tears from falling. Eric didn't understand, but rather than make this harder for her he waited for her to go at her own pace. "He was my Gran's brother, and well, he had kind of always just been around, family reunions, Sunday dinners, you know_, there_." She paused again, and Eric could feel her nausea spike, and then begin to recede as Sookie forced it back. _No!_ He heard her in his mind. _I will be strong enough to do this! I have to be!_ Letting out a shaky breath, her resolve hardened and so did her voice.

**_Shut your whiny ass up and step aside. Lemme do this!_** Eric heard the CIB offer to handle this, whatever this was. It was the first time he had heard her voice since just before the trip to The Library. He was surprised to know she was still in there, somewhere. Sookie had said that she no longer believed him to be a threat perhaps that was why she allowed her other sides to be dominant with him?

_No! We will do this together, not just you. We must be together!_ Sookie hugged him tighter and went on. He sent her more strength via the bond and she sighed as she felt him wash over her, holding her in this strange and perfect way. It felt like he had her safe in the palm of his hand, and she loved it when he did that. She loved him. She dived for that love and held it like a shield against her fear. She could do anything when she was with him!

"He was always around, he was family. No one thought anything of it when he suddenly wanted to help out with babysitting me. My Dad would be away at work, and Mom would need to run errands or pay bills or whatever and he would come and stay with me and Jason." Suddenly, Eric tensed beside her. He could see where this was going and as it played out in his mind, he turned to stone there beside her. She could feel his rage, rolling in waves.

"He _touched_ you? He _dared_ to touch you?" Eric's voice was sharp and unrelenting. His rage was for her slack ass parents, her pedophile uncle, but none of them were there. There was only Sookie to absorb his rage, and he was so lost in his emotions he forgot that as he demanded to know what happened. His hands had grabbed her shoulders and he was shaking her, demanding to know what had transpired all those long years ago.

**_I told you! I told you about that fucking fanger and how he don't give a fuck about you_**…

The increasingly loud voice of the Cast Iron Bitch was probably the only thing that could have returned Eric's sanity to him. He looked at her, terrified of him and he realized that he was making a horrible mistake here. Immediately, his face and grip on her softened. "Please," his voice broke, "Forgive me, Sookie. I can't bear the thought of anyone hurting you. Please forgive me." She let out a shaky breath and pulled him to her, seeking comfort in his arms.

Keeping her face tucked in his neck, he heard her speak in his mind_. I told you that, so you would understand what I am going to show you now. I will filter as much emotion as I can from the memory, I want to spare you as much as I can._

_What the hell? She was turning herself inside out and she is worried about sparing me? There really is no one like my, Sookie_, he thought in wonder. When she pulled him into the memory he was grateful for the filtering. She had closed down the bond on her end entirely, sparing him her humiliation and shame, and she had filtered out her fear and her Uncle's pleasure at what Eric was witnessing. Eric felt numbness flow over him. He was frozen as he realized that he couldn't help her.

Again, there was nothing he could do to save her from this. It had happened so long ago. It was happening again, and this time Eric was there with her.

Before him, Sookie, slightly older than his beloved Tea Cup Sookie, sat on the lap of an older man, he was rocking her on his lap in a chair, and his hands were under her little dress. Sookie's face was scrunched up, red and tears were slipping down her face. The look of pure joy on the old man's face made Eric sick to _his_ stomach now.

He fought to hold it together, but it was killing him to his girl subjected to this. In one of those random weird moments of clarity that sometimes occur in a completely overwhelming emotional situation, he wondered if there was some reason he had, had to spend so much time learning how to accept his powerlessness lately. He was Vampire! He was a thousand years old! He was strong, and smart and he…felt his heart breaking as he watched her suffer before him. Then it got worse, Sookie let him hear her Uncle's thoughts.

_Oh! Oh, God! It feels just as good as he said it would to touch her like this! I wanted to for so long. I could see her growing into the beautiful girl that she is now and I knew, I just knew that she would want me to touch her like this._ Bartlett lost himself for a moment in his pleasure. _Oh, thank you, thank you, Master, for giving me this! Thank you for giving Sookie to me!_ He heard The Master's voice in his head then.

**_"Bartlett, you are mine, now. You are my Horse to ride whenever I please! Say it!"_**

"Oh, I am yours, Master!" Bartlett said this out loud but he knew that little Sookie had been forced to hear everything that had been said in his mind as well, with him touching her she couldn't block him out, being her Uncle he knew about her secret as only family could.

Eric, growing more nauseous, could tell that Bartlett was right on the edge of his pleasure when he cried out for The Master to ride him. Eric, through Sookie, felt The Master slide into him and take possession of Bartlett's body at the moment he achieved orgasm from touching the child.

_So, that is what it meant to 'ride a Horse'_, Eric thought, working to distance himself from the realization that his precious Sookie had not only just been violated but that now sat in the lap of The Master himself.

Tears were still slipping from her eyes, and she was trying very hard not to move, not to speak, in fact, she was trying hard not to be there at all. It was in that moment that Eric saw the doors appear in her mind and he felt her break. She shattered into three pieces and in the lap of The Master sat a tiny version of the Cast Iron Bitch. She was detached, cold and not present for what was happening at all. The Master could have set her on fire and the tiny CIB would not have so much as flinched.

_Jones told me how to do it_, he heard his Sookie think in the here and now. _He told me how to save myself when this happened._

The Master, realizing what had happened, howled his rage. She pulled Eric away from the memory at that point. She wanted to protect him from as much as possible.

Coming back to himself after that was difficult. He didn't want to see what happened next, but his relief at not having to watch made him feel like a coward. She had endured and survived to be the woman he held in his arms today, could he not be strong enough to bear witness the birth of her whom he loved above all else?

Hearing him, Sookie kissed his cheek. _Beloved, you bore your own trials in the thousand years it took you to find me. If I were to witness them, and I may on this journey we take together, I would feel exactly as you do now. _

_It is the past, and the past has molded us but it cannot hold us to those molds, we do that._

_I chose a different path when I chose you. When I did as you said, and put my pride aside, because some things are more important. When I looked at the man before me with open eyes and heart and heard him ask for everything. _

_This, this I have just shown you is a huge part of everything. If, after seeing this, knowing this, you realize that you no longer want everything from me, I will understand. I ask only that you tell me now. I don't know what is going to happen next, but if you are not where you want to be, you should leave while you still can._ She moved back from him in the bed and looked at him, waiting to see what he would decide to do.

"I thought you believed in us? You said you did."

"I do, Eric. I am asking if you do, too. If you don't feel the way I do, especially now that you know, tell me now."

She was right. In the thousand year journey to get to her, he had been subjected to his own versions of what he had just witnessed. He had not always been a thousand, and when he was younger, other vampires had forced him to do many things that he had not wanted to do. Godric had always been a good Maker, and Protector, but there were times when Godric was away and Eric had been alone and only a couple of hundred years old. That was little more than a baby to some of the ancients in Europe and Africa, and of course, he was so fucking beautiful. The conclusion was _fait accompli._

While they had traversed the distance from there to here in her mind, the sun had risen in Paraspejl. The morning light seemed drawn to her, making her hair seem brighter. It was tousled from her sleeping, and despite the look of worry on her face as to what he might say next, he was captivated by her innocent beauty. Moving his body closer to her, forcing her to roll from her side to her back and look up at him as he hovered over her, his face just an inch or two from hers he spoke.

"You, Sookie Stackhouse, are mine," and then he kissed her. It was, as always the perfect thing to say and do. In one sentence, he told her I still want you, I accept you, I understand you, and most important of all, nothing had changed from before he knew about Bartlett.

He was still the same claiming arrogant ass he had always been, exactly when she needed it most. If he had gone all soft right now, she couldn't have taken it. She needed to know that nothing had changed between them, and he had given her that.

He didn't see a broken child or a victim, he saw a woman, _his_ woman, who needed claiming, who needed his love. As he deepened the kiss and moved over her completely, sliding his hips between her open legs, he moved his kisses to her neck. She felt his love in the bond between them.

She had seen down to the core of this man, and what he was, was not always beautiful, was not always perfect, but he was honest about what he thought and what he believed.

When he claimed her, when he loved her, he meant it. She rejoiced in that, and in him and welcomed him to her. She sent her love back to him and opened herself and the bond to him.

She needed all of him, just as he was, just like she had told him over breakfast at Uppsala. He had listened then, and she loved him for it now.


	22. As I Am, So Are You

A/N- Thank you all for you feedback on that last chapter. It was very, very hard to write that and it means a great deal to me to first have done it, and second according to you kind reviewers, to have done it well.

Bless you all and thank you for your time and comments.

**Twenty Questions**

Chapter 22- As I Am, So Are You

Sookie awoke floating six feet in the air and immediately fell on her ass. Her yelp of pain brought Eric awake immediately, and he reflexively threw a ball of purple light at whoever was attacking Sookie.

He successfully killed the doors to the left of the bed that led to the beach and missed Sookie entirely as she lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling she had just been touching wondering what the hell was going on. They both spoke at the same time.

"I can fly!"

"I can shoot light bombs!" She sat up and placed her chin on her arm along the side of the bed, smiling at him.

"Yeah, but can you actually hit anything, Northman? That is the part that counts," she teased him.

"Hrmph! You do know that flying actually involves your ass not being glued to the ground, right, Stackhouse?" He teased, diving over the edge of the bed to tackle her and roll around on the floor until she lay on top of him, grinning down.

"How do you fly, Eric?"

"You just feel it, inside. You know you want to push off from the ground, and move. At first, you mostly float like an untethered balloon, but once you can focus your will it is like launching a rocket, only the rocket is you. It helps to know what direction you want to go in, though I suppose initially, 'up' is sufficient."

"Could Godric fly, too? And Pam?"

"Godric, yes. He taught me. Pam has yet to display the gift, but I would be surprised if she didn't soon." His hands were starting to roam over her back, caressing her skin. He wasn't even thinking about what he was doing, caressing her was an automated response in him now, just as reaching for her through the bond had become regular act for him.

She giggled. "Now, you can do everything I can do, and I can do everything you can do. We are one in another way, besides the bond we share." He felt her send a burst of love through the bond, and he responded to it, moving his lips up to her neck, nipping along her jawline alternating teeth and lips.

"I can think of another way we can 'be one'. You up for it, Stackhouse?" Her answer was to kiss him, possessively, tangling her fingers in his hair, as he did to her, ferociously tender. Last night had been about confirmation that nothing had changed between them, despite the shattering revelations of the evening.

This morning, they were more powerful than ever. To everyone else these changes would have made them more formidable, scarier. To each other, it made them want to prove that no matter what happened, what seemed to change on the surface, their love, at the core, would remain their constant.

Eric showing off, levitated them back onto the bed, holding her tightly to him, as he rolled over, never breaking their kiss and taking advantage of how her legs wrapped around his hips in an unconscious effort to hang on. Her shifting positioned him perfectly to claim her and he moaned his appreciation as his hips rocked gently back and forth teasing her and himself. She began to rock as well, sliding him into her just a little further.

In his mind he heard her litany of love as he settled down on the bed and pushed all the way inside. He answered her unspoken words with punctuated thrusts of his hips, and affirmative growls from deep inside his chest. All the better to kiss her, and never have to stop. He felt her wrap her legs around him even tighter pressing his length deeper into her and squeezing him tightly. He was so lost in the sensation around his cock that he missed her levitating them high enough to roll them, placing him under her until he felt the bed against his back.

He laughed, delighted in her play as he set up in the bed, keeping her astride his body. She rode him, caught between laughter and ecstasy in his arms. He kissed her breast, taking her nipples into his mouth first one and then the other, sucking them slowly, rolling his tongue around them before taking slow gentle tugs before letting her go from his mouth_. May I feed here?_

_Yes, oh please yes_! Growling again, he took her breast into his mouth, moving his hand down between them and down to firmly rub her sensitive. In seconds his hand was lubricated by their combined juices, making his touch all the more pleasurable for her. She arched her back instinctively and rode him deeper and harder as he rubbed her. His hand between her thighs her sole focus, she lost her mind entirely when she felt his fangs pierce her skin. He came deep inside her as he tasted her, pressing deeply between her legs and tugging on her sensitive nipples with mouth. _Taste me_, he sent to her, raising his arm to her mouth pressing the underside of his wrist to her lips.

Her body was still quivering as she bit through his skin and she moaned her deep appreciation and renewed lust as the taste of him rolled over her tongue. _You taste so good_. One hand was holding his wrist to her lips, and the other was cradling the back of his head as she drank from her. She fell back on the bed slowly, pulling him with her, wanting to feel him cover her body with his. He sighed contentedly as his wrist closed, licking her wounds closed as well. As he knew she wanted he draped himself over her, coving her like a vampire blanket. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled deeply, taking the scent of her and their lovemaking deep inside himself.

_How do you shoot balls of light?_ He didn't want to move but knew that if they had been granted this gift there would be good reason. She thought for a long moment before she answered him.

_I think of someone hurting the people I love. The last time I blew the doors off Russell it was because he threatened my 'Precious Viking'._ She felt him chuckle slightly.

_And was I then, your 'Precious Viking', Beloved?_

_I was definitely warming up to you a little, imagine what would happen now that you got me all hot and bothered. Now,_ she thought fiercely, pulling his face up to look him the eyes, _now I would eviscerate him with only a thought if he so much as looked at you, lover._

_Oh,_ he thought, smirking at her, _possessive, aren't we?_

_Blood thirsty, too, but still not as old as dirt. That one is all you, Northman_. Her eyes were twinkling as she teased him. _I will also give you ruthless, but you already know that, and you love me anyway._

_You are unlike anyone else in the world, my love. No one else would be worthy of me._ He kept a straight face, but she could feel her laughter in the bond.

_Exactly, no one else would be worthy of me_, she repeated, changing ownership of the pronouns as she did the first night when she had laid claim to him as hers_. I am so glad you finally see things my way, lover. _

As they bantered Eric thought in that moment that he felt happier than he had in his entire existence. _I could meet the True Death, right now and have no regrets about anything._ The thought flitted through his mind, gone before it was even fully realized. He felt sleepy again, but wanted to get up and play in the sun. He wanted to learn how to use his new power.

She groaned when he jumped up from the bed and yelled, "TRAINING SESSION ON THE BEACH IN FIFTEEN MINUTES, STACKHOUSE! SHOWER UP, LET'S MOVE IT! MOVE IT!"

_Damn, have you seen an Officer and Gentlemen too many times or what?_ Looking at her with a stern expression on his face and the devil dancing in his eyes he sent,_ I was doing my impression of Brad _'The Iceman'_ Colbert_. She looked at him waiting on an explanation, but he just smiled at her and waited for her to 'move it, move it.' As she moved past him, she took his hand in hers and pulled him along with her to the shower.

The training session with 'The Iceman' actually started _thirty_ minutes later, but from the satisfied smile on his face, she didn't' think he minded, too awful much.

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_He must have faery somewhere in his family_, she thought to herself as short time later she watched Eric throwing light bombs like he had been doing it forever. He was a natural and his easy grace and ability to call forth the power was not dependent on his anger._ In some ways, he is a better faery than I am_. She huffed indignantly as he smugly demonstrated his prowess with the light bombs.

She was progressing as well, being able to direct her floating, but not able to launch like a rocket as she had seen Eric and Russell both do. She wanted to break the speed of sound when she flew, she wanted to roar through the skies like a fighter pilot, minus the jet. Suddenly she had an idea.

"Hey, Eric! Make me angry. I want to see if I can launch into the sky if you piss me off." Without missing a beat, he threw a light bomb at her, deliberately hitting the sand at her feet, simultaneously melting the sand to glass, while also spraying sand in her face. As she sputtered, he pressed the attack, throwing bombs that ignited loudly on either side of her, she screamed, and he felt genuine fear come through the bond as she heard the explosions near her, but could not see what was happening due to the sand in her eyes. One last time he lobbed a bomb at her head and she screamed in fear and anger and shot into the sky. He watched her sail up, and up and up and up and had the 'oh shit' moment when she didn't come back.

Taking to the sky himself he soared toward her, following the bond, up, up and away. He found her hovering at about a thousand feet above the island, looking around at the view. When he followed her gaze he saw that the turquoise sea ran on into the horizon in every direction, with his vampire eyes he thought he saw another island in the distance.

"What's that?" he pointed, asking Sookie.

"Persona Non Grata," she answered, he felt her mood dip to sadness in the bond. _Unwelcome Person_, Eric translated, waiting for more. She sighed, took his hand and began to float down to the beach. "I'll tell you another time, ok? For now, just know that before a place is made, no one can travel there. Once a place exists you can't keep _everyone_ out. _Someone_ always shows up. Someone showed up in Paraspejl and brought their own island named Persona Non Grata. I don't bother him, and he doesn't bother me."

"Him?" Jealously flared in the bond.

"No need to worry, lover. He is only a bitter lonely old man now. He had love once, but he threw it away, with both hands, and can't quite forgive himself. Since he fell through into here, perhaps he never will."

"So long as he keeps to himself," Eric began and then reconsidered. "Wait you said this was your place, why do you let him stay?"

"He was here when I was a little girl, Eric. I haven't seen him since we came here. Perhaps he is gone, though…if he is, I wish he would have taken his island with him."

"Wait, how do you mean, 'he fell through'? Through what, lover?"

"The…walls between the worlds. I am not sure that is the right word, I just don't know what else to call it."

"Is he from our world?"

"No, I don't think so, but I don't know for sure." Eric looked in that direction for a long moment and then levitated off the ground.

"I want to meet him." She shook her head.

"Another time, Eric. We have much to do to prepare for dealing with Russell. I want to go back to Fangtasia and let Pam know that the psycho is loose."

"If there were trouble, Pam would have contacted us, Sookie." She nodded.

"I know, but I would feel better if she knew. Perhaps she will even want to come here and stay until we can figure out our next move." Once they were in the mirror room, Sookie took his hand and asked him to concentrate on the mirror in Fangtasia like he had before. Soon they saw the room in the basement just as before.

Taking a long hard look around the room, Eric let go of Sookie's hand and stepped through the mirror. Once in the basement he turned and looked back for her, but he only saw his only reflection. Panic filled the bond, his panic, he couldn't feel her anymore!

Reaching back he felt only cold impenetrable glass in the mirror frame.

**NO!** He screamed his denial in the basement, taking a deep breath to roar again, he got a whiff of something that made his every hair stand on end.

Russell was here.


	23. Counting Coup

A/N- As always thank you for reading my story. Hope you enjoy!

**Twenty Questions**

Chapter 23- Counting Coup

For a moment, Eric stood in the basement completely torn and completely frozen. He _wanted_ to find Russell and kill him. He _needed_ to find Sookie. Having her gone from inside him affected him more drastically than he could ever have imagined. It was like someone had hollowed out his middle. These two conflicting needs and desires locked him in place, and he could not move in either direction, for a moment.

A moment for vampire like Eric was an eternity. Time was, the world moved entirely too fucking slowly for Eric Northman, but that time was long past.

_This_ was his world now, it moved so fast he could barely keep up, but he could keep up and the thought made him smile the same confident arrogant smile that he had worn for the last thousand years. Facing the mirror for a moment, viciously quashing the ache he felt for Sookie, he slid on his game face, the one that brought men to their knees in fear, the one that let the world know he was Eric Fucking Northman and took zero shit. He squared his shoulders, rose to his full impressive height and blurred out of the basement, following the bond toward Pam.

He could feel her fear, and her curiosity very strongly. She was close and she was still with Russell.

Russell was on his throne with Pam seated next to him. His legs were crossed and he was turned toward her, speaking in low intimate tones. Pam could feel Eric coming so she did not react when he suddenly appeared before them. Russell continued speaking to Pam as though the giant angry Viking had not just appeared in the room. He droned on, the very picture of calm; sending the clear message that not only was Eric not a threat to him, he was also insignificant.

Eric used his time to listen to what Russell and Pam were both thinking.

_Fuck! Why is Eric back here? Where is Sookie? They shouldn't have come back. Maybe I can buy enough time for them to get back through the mirror. FUCK! FUCK!_ Her face was the same icy mask of contempt as always and was very proud of her in that moment. As her Maker he had always known she was a simmering volcano of emotion. Now he could hear it all, and be impressed that she could be that worked up and look that cool. He sent her calm through the bond. She blinked but never broke stride, or let on that she was not hanging on Russell's every word.

_Fucking, Master! What would happen if I just killed him? I was told not yet, but fuck it. I give orders, I don't take them._ Eric sensing that Russell was about to move, immediately he used his mind to hold Russell seated.

A spike of pain shot through Eric's head as Russell pushed back on him, fighting to move. He was unbelievably strong. Eric locked his jaw and pushed back just as hard, forcing Russell to sit there and thankfully, shut the fuck up, for once.

Pam rushed to his side, instinctively, his eyes never leaving Russell, he reached out and took her hand, pulling on the energy between them via their bond. He needed her strength to help him hold Russell in place. Once he had connected the pain in his diminished slightly, leaving him able to think again.

He knew he couldn't hold this for long, but maybe he could hold it long enough.

"So, Russell, tell me. What's it like to be The Master's bitch?" Russell was so shocked he stopped fighting Eric's telekinetic hold on him.

_How the fuck does he know about The Master?_ Eric let out a contemptuous chuckle, rolling his eyes at his enemy. Sending a clear message that Russell was pathetic to not have realized he was looking at the one and only man who had _ever_ kicked his ass in three thousand years. Pressing him, wanting to make him angry he continued, "Does it make your dick hard when he enters you, Russell? Is that why you rolled over like the little bitch you are and sold your soul to him?" Eric's voice was much lower now, softer, and deadlier as he pressed on the ancient vampire. "If he were really all that, wouldn't he be here now, Russell, wouldn't he be here now to save your sorry ass from what is about to happen?"

Russell screamed and pushed so hard at the energy holding him in place that he managed to stand up. Pulling hard on Pam's energy to support his hold, he brought her to her knees but he held Russell in place. He wanted the bigger prize. He wanted a chat with The Master. Digging deeper into himself he turned away from Russell, the very appearance of nonchalance, and pulled up a chair. He made it look contemptuous when the real truth was he didn't trust his legs to hold him. Pam was still on her knees her head down. He kept his focus on Russell.

"Well, little bitch, does your Master care enough to show up when you are about meet your True Death, or has he abandoned you? Call him," Eric said, waiving his hand dismissively in the air and turning his face away in contempt, his tone conveying beyond a doubt his disdain for both The Master and his lapdog.

Eric had been listening to Russell's thoughts while he pushed his buttons. Bill had said the night they buried him that Russell was 'mad as a fucking hatter'! A year in quick dry on his own hadn't exactly tacked him down in sanity. His mind was addled, and when he was under pressure, as he was now, it reduced him to only brief moments of lucid thought, most of which centered on either killing Eric or crying for Talbot. The rest was just animalistic urges to please himself, fucking, drinking, anything that close up that aching hole in the middle of him. Right now he was fantasizing about ripping Eric's arms and legs off one at time, slowly and then jerking off in the goo that Eric would leave behind on the floor.

The moments dragged into minutes, and just when Eric though that he would have to kill Russell without achieving his objective, he heard The Master speak to Russell.

**_I see I should have chosen my Champion more wisely. I didn't take you for a fool Russell, yet here you are, held prisoner by one who is an infant compared to you. The one who you claimed to want vengeance on more than anything else in the world. The Viking is right, you are pathetic._**

Eric kept his face blank, not wanting to give away his new telepathic ability. He did not miss though that the pressure The Master applied from inside, mixed with what he was doing outside, took Russell to a whole new level of crazy. The penthouse level of crazy, he thought and smirked when the thought how Sookie would have laughed at that. His own empty ache rose up then, again he pushed it back. One thing at a time.

**_Kill him, Russell, you know you want to, just go over there and do it. Show me what makes you worthy to be mine!_**

Eric felt Russell press harder to escape him, and then he felt blood in his ears, leaking from the strain. He was almost out of time.

"You know Russell, it's too bad The Master is such a coward he won't show up here to even try and save you. Don't you just feel like a foo—"Russell cut him off with a crazy scream as The Master entered his mind and took control of his body. _Here it is_, he thought. _This is where we find out if I guessed right._

He concentrated as hard as he could on The Master's mind, which was, as he had hoped, now subject to the same rules that his vessel was. He could read vampire minds, and The Master had just entered a vampire, leaving his mind wide open to Eric. For a moment Eric was reminded of the sound he used to get on his car radio decades ago when he had to locate a station with a knob that turned. There was static, volume increased and dropped and then faded completely to come back nearly bending him over with its intensity. That, combined with the drain of holding Russell's physical body in place, took him right to the edge of his resources. Pam screamed from the floor and he reached out with his mind to find Sookie_. Please, help me, lover. I need you!_ Suddenly he could feel her there with him.

She was very far away, but she sent him strength through the bond. Calm washed over him, and he stood, facing The Master, feeling his hands begin to tingle. He held onto his connection with Sookie as tightly as he could and moved forward. He was now in The Master's mind.

**"I must confess, Viking, I never thought you would make it this far. I wiped your mind, sent you back in time a thousand years into the timeline of another fucking world and still, STILL, HERE YOU ARE! Jones surely is one crafty son of a bitch. Vampire! Who the fuck would have guessed?**" He shook his head in amusement. The funny was lost on Eric. Everything in The Master's mind was centered in rage and being trumped again by his playmate Jones. He also sensed a modicum of grudging respect in him for the Viking before him**. "I made you, do you know that? Every step you took, every experience that made you the warrior you are, it was my hand on the rudder. That was me at your knee, do you know that, Viking?" **

Flashes too fast for Eric to track invaded his mind, he saw himself at different points along the way. He saw his father, Godric, Pam, Sookie…the ache filled him again, but this time he felt her reach out to him, and it was bearable again.

"Why?" It was the only thing that mattered to Eric. He didn't expect to hear the truth but he expected to see it in his thoughts.

**"Because I could,"** was the sneering answer he got. In The Master's mind though he saw differently. Flashes of Sookie filled him. Sookie as a child, Sookie as a young woman, Sookie with Bill, Sookie with Eric, Sookie with The Master, smiling happily as she sat beside him. Looking at The Master in exactly the same way she had looked at him this morning. Eric digging deeper into The Master's mind saw Sookie rise from the throne beside The Master and he saw that she was heavy with child.

"No." It was all he said. He said it in a quiet tone that sounded as though he were speaking conversationally over tea in the park on a Sunday. He took a deep breath and sent all his love, hope and reassurance to Sookie, along the bond. _I will find you, Beloved. I swear it. Hold on, I am coming_. Then he let his hands light up and felt the energy of her power and her love run over his skin, caressing him like her hands and her kisses.

_Love you, Eric_. It came from far away, but it didn't matter. Eric wrapped her words around himself and then he let go. Russell didn't even scream, he just exploded into goo that rained down over Fangtasia. Eric fell to his knees then, too, exhausted. After a minute he crawled toward Pam, checking to see if she was well. She couldn't move. They both needed desperately to feed and then to die. Eric helped her to her feet and went to warm bloods for them. After downing a bottle, Pam called some donors to come to Fangtasia and help them. Synthetic blood was not going to get this job done.

While they waited, she looked at him over her second bottle of blood.

"What the fuck, Eric?" He arched a brow at her, asking in his way what she meant by her query. "You just blew up Russell Edgington with looked an awful lot like a goddamned faery light bomb. You could have done that last year and saved us a world of trouble." He shook his head, looking back at the bottle of blood in his hands.

"I couldn't do it then."

"But you fuck the Faery Princess, and now you and can shit light bombs from your ass?" He chuckled softly at image her words conjured.

"Something like that," was all he said. She wasn't ready to let go.

"Eric, you show up here through a goddamned mirror, bonded to a barmaid, half out of your mind high on love, joy and faery pussy, and I am supposed to just, what? Let that go? Tell me what the fuck is going on! Where the hell is Sookie? Oh, no wait, let me answer that one. She's in trouble right? Because _that's_ where she always is." Eric let her rant continue. She needed to blow off some steam after what happened with Russell. She wasn't really expecting him to answer her anyway, not until he was ready.

His thoughts turned inward, processing his encounter with The Master. He and Sookie had been underestimated if Russell was The Champion to stand against them. However, now that advantage was out of the window. The Master knew he could channel Sookie's power and he would be smart enough to prepare for all of them. Very likely he would also assume that Sookie could channel Eric's power as well, and that was important because Eric was fairly certain that The Master already had Sookie.

He had not felt her until The Master entered Russell's body. She had reached out to Eric through the crack The Master had used to enter this world. As soon as Russell had exploded the connection to Sookie was gone.

_The Master has Sookie_. Eric shivered, dread rolling in his gut. Pam immediately stopped ranting, and looked at him with compassion and concern.

"How can I help, Eric?" she laid her hand on his arm. "What were you doing tonight? I was out of it, but that wasn't Russell at the end was it? It was something else." He nodded, looking into her eyes. "What were you doing?" He smiled at her, pulling her close to kiss her forehead as he often did when he wanted to feel close to her.

"I was counting coup," he said when he pulled back, a small grin on his face. She snorted, rolling her eyes. Eric had never quite gotten over his time with the Sioux. They had revered him, which never got old with him, as far as Pam could tell, but more than that they accepted him. He had regaled her with tales of his adventures for nearly a century. Before he could get wound up about it all again she pressed him.

"Fine, what now?"

"Now, I find my woman." She hesitated.

"Seems like there might be more to this than just you finding your Princess, Eric?"

"Yeah, there is, but that is the only part that matters."


	24. The Palace Coup

A/N As always thanks for reading my story. Hope you all enjoy!

**Twenty Questions**

Chapter 24 - The Palace Coup

After feeding. Eric fought the need to rest for the day. He felt too pressed to start the search for Sookie. Kissing Pam goodbye he went back to the mirror, and using his power to walk between the worlds, he passed back through the mirror to Paraspejl.

It was daylight there, and at once the need to go to ground fell away. Here he was just a tired man, who missed his bonded and not a creature of the night defying his very nature.

He immediately searched the house the beach and in no time the whole island for her, but she was not there. He went back to the basement and called up the mirror from Uppsala. He could see daylight there as well, so he could not pass through. Looking at the way the room was set up though there had been no change.

Eric, unsure what to do next, sat on the beach and forced himself to think. Somewhere in all that had happened there had to be some clue something that he could use to get him to Sookie.

After a few minutes he gave up and fell back onto the beach. His mind was in a loop repeating Sookie's name over and over and he kept reaching for her but she wasn't there. Rinse and repeat. He was still exhausted from his fight with Russell and after a few minutes, the warmth of the sun warmed him and his eyes closed for longer and longer intervals.

When they finally closed, Eric found himself sitting back in the library with The Dwarf he had seen once before. This time, he knew that The Dwarf was The Keeper of the Master's Horses. This time Eric spoke first. "I know now what one does with Horses."

The Dwarf nodded. "Tell me."

"Horses are ridden. Horses are _bred." _Eric's tone was ice cold and as he spoke he leaned forward and dropped fang in The Dwarf's face, sending a very clear message that he did not approve. Not at all. The image of heavily pregnant Sookie filled his mind and he pushed his anger toward The Dwarf, a snap away from ripping his head off and drinking from his brain stem.

The Dwarf waved Eric back. "You and I can help each other, Viking. Once, we were friends, perhaps we could be again." Not pulling back Eric looked at him. He would have liked to hear the story of being friends but that wouldn't get him to Sookie.

"What is it you want, Dwarf?" Leaning in closer, Eric looked deep into his eyes, demanding the truth.

"I want to stage a palace coup." He seemed so pleased when he said those words out loud. His voice had a sing song quality that made Eric think that he had been chanting them in his head for quite some time. Cutting to the chase, Eric grabbed him by the throat and squeezed.

"You would be The Master then, Dwarf? You would depose and replace him?" The Dwarf nodded. "How would you do this? To what end?"

"Doesn't concern you, Viking," he managed to squeak out around Eric's hand. He let his grip loosen and pressed him to answer with his gaze. "All you need to know, is that I don't want your woman, you can have her when I am Master."

"Why does he want her?" The Dwarf rolled his eyes at Eric's question. They both knew from Eric's earlier comment that he was asking a question he already knew the answer to. "Why does he want to breed with her?" Eric's anger flared again.

"He can't breed with her, Viking. He can only take advantage of opportunities created by circumstance." Relief and anxiety for her safety swept through him. The Master couldn't impregnate her himself, but that didn't mean that he couldn't find a vessel to do it.

_He wants the child. _Not sure if he had figured that out himself or if someone else had just told him he stood there holding The Dwarf by the neck and let his mind process that for a minute. Shaking himself back to the present.

"What do you need from me to carry out your palace coup?"

"First, fucking let me go." Eric growled, and then roughly dropped his hold on the man's neck. After making a show of brushing off his clothes, and straightening the wrinkles that Eric had placed in his person and his outfit he resumed his seat and looked smugly at the vampire before him.

"Second, just be you, Viking. Be who you are in all your glorious nature. You being here will be enough to get me the window I need. He hates you. Did you know that?" Eric thought about the peek he had had into The Master's mind and nodded. He did know_. That was me at your knee…_

"Why does he hate me so?" The Dwarf laughed.

"Really, all this time, and you still don't know the birthplace of hate? Don't make him more than he is. He could be as big as all of time and space but hate is a simple tiny thing whose nature never changes, only its bearer. Why does anyone hate?" Eric thought of all the obsessed hate driven people that he had ever met. They all did have one thing in common.

_Jealousy_. The Dwarf saw it dawn on Eric's face. From the way he laughed it must have looked like a sunrise.

"Bingo, Boingo! Imagine how it must suck to be jealous of a being so far beneath you that it barely even registers on the food chain. The fact that he even noticed you is beneath him.

"You are everything he longs to be. You have everything he has ever wanted. You are everything he never was, could be or will be. Oh, how he has hated you." The Dwarf cackled in glee now, smacking his knee in joy and triumph.

"I will call you if I have need, Viking," the smile disappeared from his face as continued to speak. "I hope you find her, Eric." Eric heard the sincerity in his voice, and even though finding Sookie would be a blow to The Master, whom this creature wanted to depose, there was also genuine concern in his voice.

"Tell me, how do I get to her? Where is she?" he demanded ready to wrinkle The Dwarf again if needed. The Dwarf raised both his hand in the air, eyes round and large.

"Truthfully, I do not know. Once I assume the place of The Master, I will know such secrets and mysteries, but for now, I only care for the Horses."

"Exactly, she is a Horse, so you know where she is!" Eric was growing tired of these games. He would tell him where she was or he would kill The Dwarf.

"But she isn't _his_ Horse, Eric. I only care for _his_ Horses. Why do you think I am here talking to _you_?"

There was a sonic boom in Eric's mind. _That's the sound Sookie wants to make when she flies,_ his mind randomly told him. It was nonsensical and designed to slow down his thoughts and prevent him from being damaged by the realization that _he_ was The Master's Horse.

_Bingo! Boingo!_

Eric awoke on the beach screaming his denial. Immediately he contained himself, and fought to press back his rage and his fear. After several minutes he had himself under control and was able to note that there was a new smell in the air, the scent of someone who had been near him while he rested. He looked down and saw a note pinned to his shirt.

**_You can come see me when you wake up. If you bring some beer I will talk to you. Otherwise, don't bother. You should tell The Dwarf to fuck off. He's usually nothing but trouble._**

**_David_**

**_Persona Non Grata_**

**_PS. Don't fucking forget the beer, I mean it!_**

_Where the fuck am I supposed to get beer? I could go through the mirror and get some from Fangtasia? Maybe I should try and manifest some beer? What kind…_

_Really? Your bonded is missing, you were caught napping by someone who is likely a part of this and very likely your enemy, and you are trying to figure out how to get some beer. Really?_

_Yes, really_, he answered himself. _If you bring some beer I will talk to you. _Folks weren't lining up to give him information and he needed to know his enemy, plus this guy didn't sound like a fan of The Dwarf. An alternative view could be useful.

So, Eric went back to Fangtasia, grabbed a case of imported, a case of domestic and a case of Tru Blood and arriving back in Paraspejl, took to the air headed toward Persona Non Grata.

As he flew he promised himself, that if he didn't like what this David had to say he was going to eat his fucking face off for wasting his time. He was smiling when he landed.


End file.
